John-Anthony Boerma - LOVE IS A DANGEROUS DRUG

John Anthony’s Love is a Dangerous Drug is a potent exhibition consisting of 200 hand painted plates as a sound installation, addressing his autobiographical memory. It includes text which is written in child-like handwriting and the lines of songs are transcribed onto hand-painted red and blue lines. These lines recall the typical blue, red and white striped folio paper that was used in school notebooks. Suspended from the gallery ceiling and spaced in clusters of different heights, the plates mimic patterns and snippets of autobiographical memory and its remembering process through the plates’ reflection of Boerma’s personal identity. The body of work is reliant on his identity and presents an incoherent and fragmented structure. An important objective is to articulate that aspects of his autobiographical memory deals with continuity and discontinuity of the self. Event-specific information is presented through written songs and a sound installation of Boerma’s favourite songs associated to certain periods in his life. Through his installation he visually investigates aspects of a remembered event and how he recalls the latter through lyrics of songs. The way the events are remembered at a certain time, effects his perspective from which he remembers such events. The use of music employed in the artworks plays the key role in deciphering his autobiographical memory. Music and memories are deeply interlinked since the experience of a song has the ability to transport an individual to past events. It can activate sights, noises and emotions of an explicit event. Consequently Boerma’s artworks introduce the relation between music and intense autobiographical memory which is visualised through child-like drawings and writings that add a melancholic aspect to the exhibition.

Acknowledgments

Soundscape by Linda Kuhn

Reaper digital audio workstation was used to create a suitable audio atmosphere. Original music was digitally altered and mixed with voice notes as well as sound clips purchased on Splice. Sound elements were sensitively combined to enhance Boerma's visual concept.