Artist sells memory space (Monday 23 January 2006)

compiled by Emma Brien

Paul Murnaghan is offering to sell part of his memory capacity. This is in order to create a monument* to the recollections of any interested party. Individuals that wish to preserve the memory of some moment, person or obsession should get in contact with Murnaghan at one of the contacts below. A meeting will be arranged where the memorious content will be communicated and stored in the artist’s brain. Due to the fallibility of the human memory and its continual exposure to contaminating influences, the substance of the monument may corrupt over time. The possibility of pollution by other experiences is seen as an inevitable part of this process. No test of recall or future examination will be entered into. A text version of the memory will be wax sealed inside of a certificate of authentication. The sole copy will be offered to the purchaser as a precise record of the content of the described recollection. The monumentalizing of this content does not bear witness to its validity or act as ‘evidence of truth’ within the inherent material. E: mail@memorious.info T: 00353 1 4542254 *Monument fee is determined by purchaser. Offer is valid 14 - 28 January 2006 only.

The e-mail announcement of Murnaghan's project

Memorious, Paul Murnaghan's latest enquiry into human interaction calls for our participation in a simple but provocative way.

I met Murnaghan last week to share a memory with him, for which I am indebted.The encounter opened the floodgates and left me sitting holding my wax-sealed certificate, wondering why I'd responded with that particular memory and where it would nestle in the company of all the other memories he has collected. I wondered about the variety of performances he had encountered and how it must feel to process that kind of information.

In trading something as evanescent as a memory, we encase the selected recollection with another layer of importance, monumentalizing the memory and sustaining it. What we bring to the performance is chosen autonomously and is therefore inadvertently a presentation of the perceived self. As our perception of our present self is inextricably linked to the past, a monumentalized memory should persist and be prompted to the present more readily, as a reminder to the present self of a past self. By superimposition, memories become obfuscated and less accurate; it's not by voiding memories that we forget, it is by the addition of newer experiences . Memory is "finite by nature" and also needs signs or prompts to "recall the non-present"¹. As Murnaghan wrote out my memory, I considered that his perception of my memory would of course be entirely different from mine and its influence on him subjective to his own past. While the act of writing functions as a visual engram in the mind, the essence of the memory is captured in another way and locates the memory within the familiarity of past experience.

I understood the meeting as a phenomenological exercise, a recollection of an experience that is shared for the purpose of enlightening my own self-awareness and contributing to the listener's understanding of human emotion and interaction. By taking a phenomenological attitude, we ask the experience to explain itself to us and respect it for its role in our personal development.

By Murnaghan's advertising his memory space to a consumer, the selected memory is subject to the value you deem appropriate.This was my biggest dilemma surrounding the event and as a result I am now in debt.The sealed certificate I received and this piece of writing are the only physical testaments I have to my memory and the new event that now surrounds it.

For me this monument is not about to topple any time soon.

¹Derrida, Jacques. Dissemination, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1972, p 109

Most recent news items:
• Vandalism or tribute? Pierre Pinoncelli's interpretation of Duchamp (Monday 16 January 2006)
• Meaning behind Mona Lisa's smile scientifically cleared up (Friday 23 December, 2005)
• Stunning Mayan art found / new gallery in Cork (Tuesday 20 December, 2005)
• Artists' relief retained but capped (Thursday 8 December 2005)

For a full list of news items, click here.

Latest reader feedback:
News item 624  The idea of exhibiting a group of objects bought on eBay, though ...
News item 617  It'd be interesting to see how many visitors attended the gallery...
News item 603  re. Comment 2 - most people who get turned down for grants have t...
News item 603  'sour grapes aside, what are culture ireland up to?' i think we n...
News item 606  hang on a minute... surely the feller who won the prize at art st...
News item 603  As someone who received a grant from Culture Ireland this year, f...
News item 602  try and make work that doesn't topple over in future!...
News item 595  My objection is to the way the words 'young' and 'emerging' are s...

(For fuller feedback list, click here.)

Do you have an opinion on this article? If so, please click here for our comments form.

No reader feedback so far - awaiting your input!

Back to top of page