Emma Kay

Emma Kay's work is provocative examining text-based works looking at the subjective nature of knowledge and memory. She reflects upon the systems we use to perceive, store and access bodies of knowledge. She states when producing her work, it is a performance and this is an important part of producing her art. Her performances are about the spontaneous demonstration of knowledge, she incorporates various feats of memorization into her art. She feels that having the viewer reading her text makes the viewer part of the performance as well.

'The Bible from Memory which was produced in 1997 is a text work in which Emma Kay rewrote the Bible from memory in her own words, without recourse to the original. Her text, consists of about 7,500 words, is set out in six columns resembling a page from an authorised version of the Bible. She designed the typeface to match the original text. The Bible as retold by Emma Kay is presented on a a single page only slightly bigger than A4. The text is printed in tiny 5.6-point type and requires effort by the viewer to read it. From a distance it looks like abstracted blocks of lined patterning. It was printed by offset lithography, which involves the transfer of an inked image onto an intermediary roller and then to the paper. This is the technique most commonly used in the commercial printing world. The Bible from Memory was crated in an edition of twenty-five of which this is number nine. It was printed by Archer Press, London and published by the artist.

The text begins with a compressed version of the original words of the book of Genesis. However, Emma convincingly authoritative tone quickly turns to satire as she switches to the voice and language someone might use telling a story to children and undermines the apparent authority of her text with wit and comedy. She describes Adam and Eve in blissful Eden 'discovering what was around them, eating fruit and stroking the other creatures who were their friends.' The text recounts and explains key Bible stories from a late 20th century perspective, providing a contemporary version of the moral logic behind the ancient tales of retribution and forgiveness. In this way Kay notes an 'unfortunate postscript' to the story of Noah and the ark: 'Noah abused one of his granddaughters, and was found out. He was confronted by the rest of the family and had to repent.' Similarly of Jesus, she wrote: 'what really got people excited and increased his following was his ability to achieve the impossible'. God, in Emma Kay's account, is an ambiguously cruel and vengeful, unforgiving and rather grumpy killjoy who is also occasionally merciful towards the faithful. She uses idiomatic terms and expressions in common usage, such as "the Fear of God", to subvert the traditional stories. She has said of this work: ' I didn't have a religious upbringing, so I'm sure some of my sources came from school plays, musicals; Jesus Christ Superstar was very helpful...What really shocked me when i was writing the stories was that they were so familiar. Everything has a moral dilemma and this was my morality. So i had a Christian morality. My Bible represents my knowledge of Christianity.' (Quoted in Alison Nichols, 'The Persistence of Memory', black &white, March 18, 1999). Although she recounts her Bible in a tone of innocent sincerity. Emma Kay manipulates her material deliberately and skillfully.

Emma Kay is showing that recalling facts and writing them down constitutes a performance, even though it takes place in private and is highly edited. Memory is specific to individuals, like a fingerprint. Although we may have memories of the same things, the detail will be personal. Emma Kay's memory of the Bible provides an impetus for the viewer to examine his or her own memoires of the same common cultural ground. Kay has used the framework of an established cultural entity to create a form of self-portrait.'

Taken from Tate Collection/The Bible from Memory by Emma KAY, retrieved on 25/03/2008 http;//www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=26768&tabview=text

Emma Kay's work conects with my project as i am interested how memory is used to help reinforce conceptions of the past. It seems that objects, words, sounds, rituals or traditions can be used as a tool to manipulated how we construct an idenity. It seems that memory can have a dual characteristic of fixity and changeablity which raises questions about the way people relate to things as well as about the nature of things themselves as creative or passive.