Brianne Service

Memory and Fiction in Gothic Spaces

Memory and Fiction in Gothic Spaces addresses how we look at and experience Gothic interior space through methodologies of painting. Grounded in my personal experiences of living in Florence Italy, the project seeks to coalesce memory and nostalgia through the themes of the sublime and the uncanny. The exhibition and paper examine how Gothic interiors inspire awe and trigger memory, asking the viewer to question and reflect on their understanding of the real and the unreal. Informed by an interdisciplinary methodology, I have researched specific qualities of Gothic architecture; included case studies and employed a triad of methods that includes digital photography, digital collage and representational painting. This methodology has allowed me to create a pictorial language as a way to understand and rediscover my identity in Canada after returning from Italy. The results include three large-scale paintings that incorporate images of the Canadian landscape and of Gothic Revival architecture.

 2018