X 20 Memory Machine

X20 MEMORY

Commissioned by Camberwell Arts Festival

June 2013
X20 Memory began with a performative intervention, as Amy travelled through the streets of Camberwell asking people to share some of their favourite memories. When she had collected twenty memories, Amy drew pictures that represented these personal histories - from line drawings of magpies seen from a flat window, to a grisly bear to represent The Bear pub, or a bust of Sophocles in homage to the well-known Greek bakery on Camberwell Church Street.

Following the Festival’s theme – transport – Amy transformed her drawings into tickets, which she dispensed on public transport around the area. Boarding buses with a cardboard ticket dispenser, Amy asked people to pick a drawing, then dispensed a copy, stamped it, and gave it away. These micro-performances intervened in the transactional economy of the transport system by creating an alternative, gift economy of art in unexpected places. At the same time, Amy’s drawing-tickets transformed personal memories into documents of time and space, enacting Camberwell as a public space and a collective memory.