Abstract

A bench with a plaque reading Sit with me for a moment and remember is placed in a gallery and an encounter takes place. It is both a dedication to a loved one and an invitation to a stranger. You are invited to listen to an audio recording that reflects on what it means to sit for a moment and remember.

A meditation on remembrance, this piece enacts an encounter with an absent friend. The audio summons a stranger or a ghost, a living presence or a fleeting memory of someone that may have been lost. Sit with me for a moment and remember makes manifest Michael Pinchbeck’s recent practice as research about and into memory, nostalgia and loss. It continues his ongoing research interests into ‘staging loss’ and ‘performing absence’ that surfaced in a symposium he co-convened at the University of Lincoln in 2016 - Staging Loss: Performance as Commemoration. For TaPRA 2017 at the University of Salford, Michael exhibited the artwork and delivered a talk about the project as part of the TaPRA Gallery.