Most of us have a sense of self identity, or at least a reasonable chance of acquiring one. This sense of self is critical to our status of being, yet the construction of identity is largely based on transient, unstable tenants, such as memory and the recall of places, events and actions of our past. In his latest piece, Toby Phips Lloyd summons an atmosphere of poignant introspection by way of video piece and physical installation.
Here, the viewer is invited into a reconstruction of Lloyd's teenage bedroom, appearing as a box made from MDF boards and stud work. This is accompanied by a video piece of the artist being interviewed, by himself, for the radio programme Desert Island Discs. Asked to select 8 records, a book and a luxury which carry a strong personal resonance, Lloyd's recall of the components of his being is physically manifested in, and tested by the paraphernalia of his teenage self, left in the room.
Presented on a monitor behind the installation, and with audio streaming via a radio placed on his old desk, Lloyd's double presence repeats the structure of psychoanalytic treatment, in which the analyst does not face the eyes of the patient but instead listens to the signifiers of their unconscious from an unseen position. The interviewer acquires a unique awareness of the interviewee from the narrative described, thus residing in a position where he can challenge and compare with his own, perhaps alternative, memory of events.
As we are drawn further and further into the artist's personal space, both physical and psychological, we are forced to confront our own accounts of the past, with unsettling results. How accurate are our own personal narratives? And, how we will ever know whether what we believe to be the essential ingredients of our psyche are a genuine recollection or simply a personal construction?
- Mollie Lloyd
This piece was commissioned by The Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University, in collaboration with Empty Shop. A monograph book about the project was published, including essays by Simon J James (Durham University), Emma Coffield (Newcastle University) and Katherine Walsh (Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art). Please contact me if you would like a copy.
