OUR FORMER SELVES | 1994©
A photograph and a memory
Made in 1994 as part of an installation for a solo show at Gallerie in Turim, Bremen, Germany, Our Former Selves uses as it’s starting point a family photograph.
The photo was taken outside the church in the village after the christening of the youngest brother in the McClean Family in 1987 and shows the complete family for the first time, 12 children with their parents.
The voice-over tells stories passed down through the maternal line. They repeat themselves like a dark fairy tale echoing through the shimmering light of the photograph as it is transmitted through a video signal.
In these family stories, re-told grains of truth slip and slide through the flickering image. They become something ‘other’ in the re-telling, in the recounting. The image and sound merge and a forgotten way of life unfolds sending a current into the present that signals a former way of being.
World Premiere | Gallerie in Turim, Bremen, Germany, 1994. It was also screened as part of McClean’s survey show at Belfast Exposed, 2022
Still from Our Former Selves | 1994©