Exploring Family.

Every family is different. Every family has gaps, missing and troubling components. Some are close to home, others long forgotten. I am interested in the way mine appears as a large tapestry. 

I have begun this project to learn more about my past. I am interested in how our memories and opinions of other family members are shaped by those we know and to uncover unknown truths.

It is a search for identity and becomes a desperate attempt to make things "normal" out of nothing. 

The family archive isn't like the digital. It isn't perfect. It isn't gigantic. It is real.

Where mine starts (in more recent generations).

Filling in the Gaps.

Below you will find fictional archives created of my 'missing' family members using; collage, photomontage, text and archive. 

A party woman "in a time that's not what mothers did". Liked to drink. Left her child with her grandparents for the first few years of her life. I envision her as a woman who considers herself important and beautiful. 

The man is a mystery. Unknown father, unknown grandfather and so on. Appeared and disappeared. The family speculates he was a US or Canadian army man. I imagine him handsome, clueless with blue eyes. 

"I hate my father". Are words I've heard often, stories remaining untold because of it. Fragments of alcohol use and beatings. I image a poor house that's dark with anger. 

The most documented of my relatives in terms of newspaper articles. Corporal Cunliffe, an RAF man who was taken as a prisoner of war and returned with a beard and hungry. His gambling habits are perhaps a symptom of this. 

A woman who didn't have a lot to give but gave everything. A woman who loved to cook, worked in a factory and lived in Malta for a little while. I imagine her to be happy and a generous smiling woman. 

An only child. A Navy and Army man. He began in factories and ended up with his own textile business. I imagine him to be smart but greedy.