Exhibition
Stage Left was presented at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, as part of Amanda Jane Graham's artistic residency and solo exhibition programme.
Curated By Sarah Searson
17 November 2018 – 5 January 2019
The Dock Arts Centre
Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, Ireland
The exhibition brought together installation, drawings and collage to examine the relationship between personal experience, popular culture, humour and memory.
Stage Left
2018–2019
Installation, drawing, collage and mixed media
The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
About Stage Left
Stage Left is an installation and residency project exploring self-reflection, personal narrative and memory. Drawing on autobiographical experience, the work moves between humour, fantasy and darker, more unsettling aspects of lived experience.
The project uses familiar imagery from popular culture, including the visual language of Warner Bros., Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. These recognisable characters and images provide a shared visual vocabulary through which personal memories and difficult subjects can be approached with humour, irony and playfulness.
Alongside the installation, Graham incorporates autoethnographic drawings and collages, bringing personal experience into dialogue with the collective memories attached to familiar forms of popular culture. The resulting works blur the boundaries between autobiography, memory and invention.
Titles are an important part of the project. They provide another layer through which the viewer can enter the work, connecting the visual imagery with the memories, associations and thought processes behind its making.
Video Interview
Stage Left, The Dock Arts Centre, 2018–2019
Interview and installation view of Amanda Jane Graham's Stage Left at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, 2018–2019. Video produced by Pink Lime Videos.
Biff, 2018
Stage Left installation view, The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, 2018–2019.
Installation Views
Wile E. & Me, 2018
Stage Left floor installation, The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, 2018–2019.
Stage Left — Installation View
Installation view of Stage Left at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, 2018–2019.
Selected Works
You Are Always A Chief to Me, 2014
Work included in Stage Left.
There's More to Me Than The Big C, 2014
Work included in Stage Left.
Stage Left — Installation View
Installation view of works from Stage Left at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, 2018–2019.
Context
Stage Left forms part of Graham's wider exploration of personal narrative, memory, popular culture, and how familiar imagery can help approach difficult or complex subjects.
The project also connects with Graham's earlier autobiographical work, in which drawing, collage, humour, and remembered experience explore the relationship between private memory and shared cultural imagery.
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