Alix Hall

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

THE MEMORY OF AIR

The theme I have explored in my work is the idea that Air has memory. I explore this idea through capturing, highlighting and comparing locations that hold specific memories. I also explore a more conceptual idea that we can detect and feel the memory of a place through the air, as if the air is telling us the memory. These ideas personify the air in a way that is interesting to fantasize about and makes us more aware of what is happening in our spaces. My work also touches on themes of pollution, breath and breath in Covid times. The idea for my topic of work started with the theory that Dr Masaru Emoto came up with, and it states that water can retain memory. He did experiments on water that show that when water is frozen, the general shape of the snowflake changes depending on what emotions/phrases were said to the water.

This started the thought process of whether the other four elements have the same attributes. Scientifically, all of the elements (water, air, fire and earth) contain particles from the places they have been and we can therefore track down the places they were before. This could be considered memory. But when considering this about air, the idea that air has memory is terrifying, since it is all around us, constantly touching us. Scientifically air does ‘have memory’ since certain places have certain pollution levels or certain scent particles, but we can also look at it from a more conceptual approach. This is what my work is about. The concept is that the air remembers what has been in a space or what is happening in a space or even what is happening nearby. The feeling we get when we walk into a room would be the air presenting its memory. This could be described as the sixth sense. And if we start to think about each space and what the air in that space has witnessed, the air starts to get personified and we can start to empathize with the air. When we think about the emotions and feelings left behind in a space, we can sometimes resonate with them or ‘feel them in the air’. An example could be when you visit a memorial site, you are struck with a deep sadness and respect or mourning feeling [feeling of mournfulness]. The aim of my exhibition is to capture that emotion and try to present it in a way that, even though it is not that strong and intoxicating, you could still feel some sort of residual emotion from the space. It also provides time to reflect on the space and empathize with all that has gone through the space before you, and connect with what emotions are left behind. That is the Memory of Air.