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A bit of a bay (H2), 2018
Inkjet print and gesso on cotton paper 350gr | 21,5 X 29,5 cm

A bit of a bay (H3), 2018
Inkjet print and gesso on cotton paper 350gr | 21,5 X 29,5 cm

A bit of a bay (H4), 2018
Inkjet print and gesso on cotton paper 350gr | 21,5 X 29,5 cm

In Notiz über den ‘Wunderblock’ (1925 [4]), Sigmund Freud writes about the Wunderblock and how this toy, that in some way replaces the traditional slate board, recall us about the impossibility of forgetting. Comprised of a wax tablet and a sheet of cellophane, it has a specific mechanism that once the cellophane is pulled away all the drawings that were made in it disappear. Yet, these images are never entirely erased; some traces from each image are permanently engraved on the wax. Through this example, Freud tries to demonstrate how the human mind is able to retain all lived experiences, even if only in the unconscious, and therefore, how it coexists with the inability to forget.

The works from the series A bit of a bay (2017-18) start with enlarged copies of photographic prints that I found randomly; a gesso layer is given in their surface and subsequently partially removed. The intensification of the amount of processes of subtraction and addition is somehow related to this Freudian idea.

Through an additive subtraction, the works in this series embody a cumulative but non-linear structure that tries to find a visuality to the impossibility of a total oblivion.

AnaMary Bilbao, February 2017