My work primarily deals with archives of memory and photographic explorations of real, mythical or imagined journeys.
My interest in archives stems from a childhood fascination with foraging for and collecting artefacts. As a result, I own a vast collection of fossils, coins as well as endless photographs that I used to rescue from skips and flea markets.
I continue this practice by foraging through layers of physical and cultural geography, history and memory, and by piecing together fragments that establish links between our collective past and present. In particular, I investigate the role of the artist as an archivist of personal and collective memories. Memories that are about to be lost or have been silenced.
History can be hard to grasp; it feels anonymous and alien until we begin to examine individual stories. Therefore my projects often begin with a story: a minor historical event or an ordinary person’s experience. From this, I draw connections with a larger historical context and show the ripple effects that the minor event has caused: some ripples surviving until the present day.
Through research, I collect triggers such as photographic documents, stories, objects, sound and video recordings. Through travel, I try to experience a past event embedded in the fabric of a location (such as a building) or a landscape: this is my memorial archaeology.
Often, a new project will be re-photographed and reworked through projection, mediation on a computer screen or layering and bricolage. These processes emphasize that my own access to the material is usually not immediate but mediated and that each narrative can contain multiple meanings when revisited over time.
The images from the photographic series Traces (2001) allude to spaces of reflection within ourselves. They are “containers of memory”. Traces is based on two family photographs that I found in a suitcase belonging to my great uncle Hugo who was Jewish. While Hugo managed to escape to the UK from Austria most of his family perished in the Holocaust.
The short film, Leaving Atlantis (2003), funded by South East Arts, is a collaboration with artist Nerea Martinez de Lecea and reflects the experience of cultural displacement.
Two Sisters (2003), for which I received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, explores the different WW2 experiences of two sisters: my maternal grandmother Viktoria and her sister Martha. Viktoria lived and worked in Berlin from 1938 to 1945. Martha by polar contrast contributed to the British war effort from the UK. In 2002, I undertook a journey of discovery in Berlin and the UK to relive their stories. The work was developed for two major solo exhibitions: one at the Manx Museum (2004, Douglas) and the other at the Mediatheque Francois Mitterand (2004, Poitiers). In each case, the gallery space was transformed into a circular walk-through. Visitors were invited to walk chronologically backwards or forwards through the exhibition. A sound room was built in the centre of the gallery from where sound ‘spilt over’ into the entire space. This lay-out, the immediacy of sound, the stillness of the photographs and objects placed in display cases throughout the space invited visitors to engage with the work in immediate ways.
The theme explored in Retracing Heinrich Barth (2006), one of two projects in progress (supported by South East Arts and the University of Brighton) is a development of previous material and connects to my first degree in Anthropology and African Studies. Through this project, I want to “excavate” some myths relating to the 19th century explorer Heinrich Barth, and present a postcolonial response in the form of an interactive web archive. I am also currently revisiting a little-known pilgrimage to Canada from the UK made in 1929 as part of my photographic series My Canadian Pilgrimage (supported by the Ontario Council for the Arts).
Resume.
Julia Winckler, Born Hanover, Germany BA (Brighton), BA (Toronto) MA (Toronto)
Julia is a photography lecturer at the University of Brighton where she teaches on the BA Communication and Digital Media (School of CMIS) and the BA Photography (School of Art and Design).
She is a member of MeCCSA (Media, Communication & Cultural Association) and the Media and Communication Research Group, University of Brighton.
Recent solo exhibitions include Traces at the Wiener Library (2003 London) and the Maison Heinrich Heine (2003 Paris), and Two Sisters at the Manx Museum (2004 Douglas) and the Mediatheque Francois Mitterand (Poitiers 2004). Leaving Atlantis (2003) (a collaboration with artist Nerea Martinez de Lecea) premiered at Random-Ize Taipeh, Taiwan. Julia is currently developing two new interactive projects. Retracing Heinrich Barth (2006) relates the myths surrounding the six year Africa journey of 19th century explorer Barth; My Canadian Pilgrimage (2006) revisits a little known 1929 pilgrimage to Canada from the UK. Recent arts projects have been supported by the Arts Council South East, UK, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Council for the Arts.
In 2004 Julia (with Nerea Martinez de Lecea) was commissioned to develop and co-facilitate workshops for the Brighton Photography Biennial, which culminated in the publication A country I always carry with me (2004). She was also lead artist for the Image and Identity youth photography project led by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London which resulted in exhibitions at the Brighton and Booth Museums with a small selection of work displayed at the V&A, London 2004.
Julia has contributed articles to London Independent Photography and the International Yearbook for Exile Studies. Her article “Acts of Embodiment: Collaborative Explorations in Phototherapy” (co-written with Stephanie Conway, Champlain College, Montreal) appears in Wild Fire: Art as Activism (Sumach Press: Toronto, 2006).
For further information visit www.juliawinckler.com
