Memory Balloons
Mark Antony Smith
Opening: March 25 5:30 pm
Viewing: March 24 until April 4
Memory Balloons brings together two different kinds of remembering.
The first are the balloons. These are 3D printed objects—solid versions of something usually temporary and fragile. Balloons normally float for a short time before disappearing. These ones don’t. They are fixed to the wall, permanently inflated.
Painted onto them are moments taken from photographs: family snapshots, travel images, ordinary scenes from different points in my life. The balloon becomes a small container for a memory. But like all memories, these moments are partial, slightly distorted, and shaped by time.
Alongside the balloons are paintings from my recent Human Robot and AI projects. These works were developed in collaboration with my AI counterpart, Virtual Mark Antony. Instead of starting with photographs, these paintings begin with invented prompts, artificial recollections, and imagined events.
In this exhibition, real memories sit beside fabricated ones. Personal photographs share space with scenes that never happened.
The balloons hold moments that were once lived but are now filtered through recollection and paint. The AI paintings present memories that were never experienced at all.
Together they ask a simple question: if all memory changes over time, how different are real memories from invented ones?
{ Gallery 1 }
