Giulia Ballarin
Of Memory and Belonging, 2022
Installation of framed C-Type Photographs (dimensions varied) on Fuji Matt paper, Wallpaper,
Handmade Artist’s Book 14.8 x 21 cm, Hardback, with 10x15 C-type print, Limited Edition of 25
I am a London-based, Italian artist working with analogue photography and alternative processes. My work focuses on ideas of memory, identity, nature, sense of belonging, the decoding and understanding of details of the world and perception. Guided by intuition, the camera gives me a way of looking at the everyday in a more conscious and sensitive light, a way of understanding thoughts and emotions that are otherwise difficult to access and express. I recently found deep interest in the physical process of making as a way of reconnecting to the materials and investigating the Self.
Of Memory and Belonging explores the idea of being a migrant torn between two places and aims to represent the attachment to a place, either real or created by the mind. In this project, I analyse the relationship I have built with such a place ever since I left it behind, and I explore the way I perceive my home and my altered memories of it, deceived by nostalgia.
I believe that the place I grew up in has had a crucial role in shaping who I am; in constant contact with nature, the idea grew in me that if I were asked who I am, I would probably answer ‘the grass you lay upon on a sunny day’.
