Em Cooper: Drawing Project//Nostalgia

The idea I had for the drawing project, which started in our Streams group, was originally going to be a simple project based on architecture around Sheffield city centre. However after a discussion in the group, where questions about the reasons behind the project and past relationships I had with Sheffield were raised, I decided to turn it into something more personal. I was stuck for ideas as to where to take the project, but when the theme of nostalgia kept cropping up everywhere and my younger and I took a trip to the town we lived in for four years of our childhood, I thought it was the perfect place to start.

On our visit to our old town (a town called Swinton, a twenty minute train journey north of Sheffield), I took pictures of places that hold very strong memories for me, like our house, the library, the church rooms where I went to Brownies. Everything around the town was pretty much as I remember it from the last time I was there, about eight years ago, apart from the primary school. The school I attended was an old cobbled stone building, with a few new pre-fabricated classrooms, with a mainly concrete playground and small playing field. The school that stands there now still has the same name as the school I attended from year 2 to year 5, but the whole building I remember has been demolished and replaced with numerous modern buildings, resembling nothing of the memories I have. The first time I saw this new build on a visit to the town a year ago, I was really emotionally affected, and found it so strange that somewhere you remember so well can suddenly change so dramatically and the memories of a place be completely crumpled. I decided to use this idea and create a series of drawings that resemble places with strong memories, and places that I have blurred memories of, or places that have changed so much my memories have now changed. To do this, I will create strong drawings for places with strong memories, and less detailed drawings of places with blurred memories.

The starting point for this project will be a sketchbook of drawings, but I also plan on going back with a camera, to make photographs a big part of the project. Photographs portray the actual place as it stands there now, however drawings make a place more emotional. After an idea given to me in our Streams group after the visit, I plan on making a large scale drawing of the places I have focused on.

I am interested in uses places to focus on as opposed to people because places come with a strong sense of nostalgia, and memories and emotions can be shared with people but memories of places cannot be shared directly with the place, they are mainly unique to only you.