ARTWORK DETAILS
David Aston
Forgotten
Marble and bronze letters
2017
“Forgotten, marks this shift in the way we think about our personal data and memory. The point in our evolution where we have so much data that we feel the need to edit and control it’s ownership, distribution and deletion.”
FURTHER DETAIL
There is a human need to record and remember. During the stone age, large monuments were built to ensure the memory of gods, rituals and rulers. During later classical periods, these evolved into marble temples, columns, reliefs and steeles. These monument remind us of and provide us with an understanding of the people, philosophies and beliefs of this age.
In contrast in the west, much of our collective history from the early middles ages has been forgotten. Few records remain due to the cultural decline following the collapse of the western Roman empire. This period is often described by historians as the dark ages.
Fast forward to today and the digital age, where more data is created and recorded on a weekly basis than all other ages combined. In fact, so much of our personal data is now recorded, often without our knowing or consent, that we now seek new rights not be recorded. After millennia of wanting to be remembered, we are now so observed and profiled in our everyday lives that we choose to be forgotten.
To earlier societies being forgotten was considered an act of dishonour. In its most extreme form, Romans, Egyptians and early Christians practiced the act of damnatio memorial (latin), the “condemnation of memory”. State decree or public outcry led to the destruction of the busts, statues, and texts associated with rulers, politicians and criminals in an attempt to eradicate them from history. Acts of damnatio memorial continue in the 21st century as the ideologies and statues of dictators and wrong-doers continue to be publicly dismantled and destroyed.
“Recordatus - Remembered
Oblivioni Traditae - Forgotten
Damnatio Memoriae - Condemnation of memory (must not be remembered)”
Forgotten, marks this shift in the way we think about our personal data and memory. The point in our evolution where we have so much data that we feel the need to edit and control it’s ownership, distribution and deletion.
Forgotten is made of marble and bronze, both time-resistant materials that last for millennia.
EXHIBITIONS
2018 - The Other Art Fair, London
