Memory | Material
Walking into the Great hall at the NGVI, my
eyes where immediately drawn to the ceiling of the room. I walked to the end of
the room and sat against the wall, taking in all the colors and patterns
created by the stained glass. In our second reading this quote by Frances, R, ‘
Home in the world: The art of Do-Ho-Suh’ stood out to me “ The house shelters daydreaming,
the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace”. The reason I choose this quote was I able to
relate it to the feeling of being in the great hall, the enormous space, the
high walls all leading to this magnificent sight of color, I felt like the
space held lots of dreams and memories.
And the second quote I got from the same
reading was “Through dreams the various dwelling-places in our lives
co-penetrate and retain the treasures of former days. “. The fact that the
great hall to me seemed like a place where dreams were had and kept, I felt
that the quote put my feelings perfectly.
When sitting down staring at the ceiling, I
was also flooded with primary school memories, when we used to make paper
lanterns and cut out different shapes and stick colored cellophane over the
shapes and light a candle. The cuts in the lanterns would glow different colors
in the night. The ceiling reminded me of one big lantern, a place that offers,
shelter, light and comfort.
As Jenny Liu writes “ In this world, the
idea of home resides solely in memory and metaphor”, I believe that the use of
stained glass and patterns has evoked in me the memories of childhood,
illustrating that a sense of home does reside in our memories, and can be
evoked by “ various dwelling-places”.
