Found objects contain unknowable histories. Relics of anonymous lives, they become vessels for memories which can no longer be accessed. Yang-En Hume collects items from flea markets to explore how personal histories are remembered and constructed. Flea markets are fascinating places, displaying overwhelming amounts of intimate ephemera: family photographs, letters, fabric, needlework and domestic detritus. Laden with household miscellany, they personify the unseen domestic craft and labour that women have undertaken for centuries. Objects are passed from family homes to the market, to be found by chance by a passing stranger. Intimate details of lives are revealed, yet the people who once owned these objects remain anonymous. Their absent bodies are merely hinted at in worn photographs and yellowing scraps of lace.

Duplicate State draws on this presence and absence of information. Hume created solar photograms from pieces of fabric and lace sourced from flea markets. The result is delicate, partially obscured prints which reflect the way that a found object is merely the residue of a once tangible existence. Digitally printed fabric builds upon the photograms. Translucent layers of tulle, organza and silk construct palimpsests that distort and erase the original image. These overlapping forms reference the history that is embedded within the surfaces of found objects. The concealed imagery, along with the use of fabric and embroidery takes on gendered connotations, hinting at the lives of ordinary women whose identities have been lost to history.

Duplicate State Exhibition Statement

Photography by Jack Taylor and Yang-En Hume