Small memories in luggage, Elisabeth Peer

Lost luggage, 2007 - 2008A suitcase containing broken fragments of glass with images of children printed upon.
When lid is lifted, the sound of children's voices is played.
20 x 40 x 30
found suitcase, glass fragments, mp3-player

Lights, 2003
Handmade electric lanterns with transfer prints on Japanese paper. 20 in total.
5x5x5 - Electric christmas lamp bulbs, Japanese paper, ink

Small memories - 2010
six rooms in a dolls house, each containing a recollected incident from the artist's childhood.
Can be assembled in any order
20 x 25 x 22cms each box - card, pigments, photos, wool, metal etc

Avec Left Luggage (2005), Elisabeth Peer place dans une vieille valise en cuir des fragments de photos sérigraphies sur des bouts de miroir cassés. On entend des voix d'enfant. Le visiteur est renvoyé à sa propre expérience. Les choses oubliées émergent quand il examine les fragments enterrés. 

Dans son oeuvre, l'artiste réfléchit aux mécanismes par lesquels les souvenirs enfouis ressurgissent. Elle travaille souvent à partir de photos de famille. 

«Where is memory located and how much of it is personal and how much part of a universal experience? The central concern of my practice is investigating how we retrieve memory and what it means, not only for the artist but for the viewer: a kind of dialogue with the past. People will bring their own experience to this work and examine buried layers, hidden fragments and sudden insights into things forgotten. Family photo albums are my main source material - they record both preservation and decay, lies and truth. We can treasure our photos and display them with love like icons, or we can store them away in boxes and biscuit tins waiting there forgotten for light to be let in on them. The material presence of old photographs also holds a magic for me: the silvery surfaces, cracked and fragile; half-seen images on clouded glass - all this feeds into my work.»

Source: Elisabeth Peer,