Jen Bowmast – Oobey Goobey, 2015, End of year show, AUT Campus, Auckland
A space which has been experienced has traces of that experience. The inescapable evidence of our presence even when absent is illustrated by Walter Benjamin, who states that “To live means to leave traces”. This is an instinctual concept where people leave emotional ‘residue’ or traces in spaces that can affect people who inhabit the same spaces afterwards. Can emotional residue connect each person who shares a space? Are these emotional leftovers also present in the physical residue such as hair, dust and paint flakes? Is it more potent, diluted or no longer tangible?