Looking back at my Project Plan, I feel that the main intentions of my project are still very much present. My work continues to explore migration, memory, identity, belonging and the experience of moving between places, cultures and different stages of life. What has changed is the way I approach these subjects. Earlier in the project I was often trying to describe or document my experiences, while now I am becoming more interested in transforming them through metaphor, mythology, poetry and photography.
I have started to recognise that some of my strongest work develops when an image or an experience carries more than one meaning. The bird on the post is a good example. At first it was simply a photograph taken during a journey, but gradually it became connected with ideas of freedom, confinement, leaving and uncertainty. In a similar way, my poems based on the Odyssey use mythology not to illustrate Homer, but to understand my own lived experiences. This has helped me recognise a more coherent voice within my work.
Research is also becoming more important. I am beginning to understand that research should not simply sit beside my practice as something separate. It should question it and sometimes change it. Mythology, literature, philosophy and the work of other artists help me look again at my own images and experiences from different perspectives. At the same time, the work I make often creates new questions that lead me towards further research.
Feedback has also made me think more about how my work communicates to somebody who does not know my personal history. I still find large group feedback difficult and prefer more meaningful conversations, but I understand the importance of allowing other people to interpret the work differently from me. Their interpretation does not have to match my intention for the work to be successful.
As I move towards the final stages of the project, I would like to spend more time experimenting rather than moving too quickly towards finished outcomes. I want to document alternative versions, unsuccessful attempts and changes of direction, and ask more carefully why I choose a particular image, sound, text or method.
At this stage, I feel that my practice is becoming less about documenting a journey and more about understanding what remains within us after movement, change and experience. This is something I would like to continue developing as the project moves towards completion.
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