A collaboration for Art Neuro with Alzheimer's researcher Christian Matheou.
I was interested in the way copper build-up could potentially be involved in degenerating the structure of the brain, thereby affecting the faculties of memory and recognition.
People form attachments to items through familiarity and because of what they represent through association with memories. In the research for this project, we asked a group of people to choose objects they felt particularly attached to: mementos that had sentimental value and familiar objects they treasured in everyday life.
I began to reproduce some of these objects in porcelain, while exploring the action of copper in eroding the structure of clay. I introduced small sections of copper wire to the porcelain, assembled to mimic the toxic Amyloid-beta clumps found in Alzheimer's disease. The copper melted and burnt during the firing process, breaking down the structure of the objects so they become successively harder to recognise.
