Artist Statement

My practice includes textiles, ceramics, and alternative photographic methods. My material processes are guided by a commitment to research, delving into newspaper archives, genealogy, and various resources to unearth narratives within my work. Exploring themes of personal and community loss, as well as identity, I navigate the known and unknown details surrounding missing and unidentified individuals. My art looks at the intersections of materiality, history, and emotion. My works serve as both a tribute to loss and a reflection of threads that connect us all. -Miriam

Background to the work

Memories result is a translation that acts as an interpretation of an event.

The memories we recall can be intentionally or accidentally distorted, changing without our realization. When memories are retrieved, they fuse with other memories to produce an unclear view that sits between truth and fiction. As a memory is recalled, it becomes layered and reshaped by the chemical process of retrieval in the brain. I hope to visually capture these ideas within my work, showing the intangible aspects of memory.

As an immigrant, I have found my place through trying to understanding culture and place. This began with my past work, which dealt with personal identity through memory and family history connected to the UK and Sri Lanka. In recent years, that focus shifted to exploring broader overlapping concerns that intersected with identity and social issues. Building on ideas of perspective and perception developed in my past work. I have attempted to understand and ask questions about who and what makes up society around us in a way that invited conversation and further investigation on the part of the viewer.

-miriam