16/10/2026
Memory, because we remember primarily through images, and we believe what we remember (sometimes to our detriment); sight, because ‘seeing is believing’; and love, because believing grows from the same root as loving.
Daniel Levi Strauss, Photography and Belief, 2020
The inspiration for this piece began with an interest in mythology. When looking at what a myth was to me I identified it as a memory abstracted. With pieces forgotten and then filled in over time into a story we carry with us. retold over and over again and thus changed with time.
What details were originally left behind, what stories were created from the gaps? How do we mythologise the people we’ve loved and lost?
In this portrait, I portray a girl in longing, laying down on a shirt from a loved one not pictured and likely lost. Her gaze is turned from the viewer, looking towards a dark field of grass. The density and darkness of the grass act as a metaphor for memory, looking to find something of an image only to be met with the darkness of its erasure, the green weaves interlacing the fractions of its existence and the feelings it has left behind. The shirt represents what is left behind, and Memory is activated by the object.
This piece aims to tell a story of love, loss, longing, memory, and transformation, honing in on the fragments left behind, to, as myth would allow, be filled in with an impression over time.
- Mira Jaan
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Artwork details:
When can I say your name and have it mean only your name
Oil on canvas
76.2cm x 76.2cm
More information: [email protected]
