Partial Recall, 1991
An alfresco collaged diary of the 1980s

In 1991 I was invited by the Douglas Hyde gallery in Dublin to be part of a survey show of Irish art of the 1980s. The curator felt that much of the work in the show was framed within an Irish context and asked if I would make a new work, which was more outward looking. I devised a temporary work in-situ. I collected magazine cuttings from a global historical survey of the eighties and pasted these along one wall of the gallery, selecting and editing by painting out sections which I did not want to use. The resultant 'fresco' enabled viewers to take in a personalized partial history of the eighties in one glance. I was particularly interested in how the form related to memory and its interplay of randomness and chronology. Irish events and references which were included in the mix had to be viewed within a broad international context.