Ritual, Fetish and Infinity Collide in a Memory Theater

Back in the 16th century, Italian philosopher Giulio "Delminio" Camillo developed and communicated the idea of a “Theater of Memory” in his book The Idea of the Theatre. This spectacle would conceptually—in time and in space—contain the entire universe. Inspired by Camillo’s concept, Los Angeles and Portland-based artist Srijon Chowdhury, whose work has architectural and mythical elements, decided to create his own spectacle, Memory Theater, which would contain works from himself and many other artists.

Memory Theater features 28 artworks including sound pieces, ceramic sculptures, watercolor paintings, a pair of tin can telephones, and various items used in everyday life. Chowdhury tells The Creators Project that his work in Memory Theater involved the carpentry behind the structure, the overall direction and a shadow play as painting. Visitors can take in the circular structure as a whole from the outside, where the 28 artworks can be investigated under various colored lights, or step into the theater’s interior to see Chowdhury’s shadow painting, which essentially contains all of the work.

Memory Theater grew out of Chowdhury’s work on a solo show at Klowden Mann back in 2013. Titled The Garden, the exhibition centered on two large (8' x 24' and 8' x 18') oil paintings of mounds of flowers. The paintings faced each other, and between them were two small (12" x 9") paintings of bouquets that mirrored each other. Chowdhury wanted the gallery to become a new origin myth, with the large paintings forcing people to become part of it.

After The Garden, Chowdhury began making paintings of arches based on a mosque his great-great-great-grandfather had build on the coast of Bangladesh. Chowdhury says the interior of the arches were a softer version of the flowers from The Garden. His plan had been to use these paintings as walls in building a circular structure that mimicked the mosque. But while working in his studio, Chowdhury noticed that shadows cast from stretcher bars were coming through onto the painting. Chowdury ultimately began incorporating shadows on linen instead of applying paint.

Around the same time, Chowdhury read the book by Simon Critchley titled Memory Theater, a fictional memoir where the author built a memory theater to figure out the world before he died. Chowdhury then started reading more and more about memory theaters on the internet, while also researching the concept in Frances Yates’ book The Art of Memory, which, among other things, details Camillo’s theater of memory.

“The memory theater was a circular structure that was covered in signs and symbols that were meant to make a person remember the whole history of the universe,” Chowdhury says. “It was an information storage and retrieval device, a precursor to the internet.”

“Camillo’s invention grew from the ancient Greek art of memory where in order to remember things such as a speech word for word, they would construct a building in their mind that was covered in images,” he adds. “So as they spoke, in their mind they would walk through the building looking at each image which corresponded to each word in the speech.”

Building on Camillo’s memory theater, Chowdhury became interested in how memory changed. He says his memory is awful because of all of the modern external ways of storing information or finding absolutely everything out. For Chowdhury, memory is a word now tied more to nostalgia than anything else.

“But 500 years ago I think it was a much more powerful and active word, and 500 years ago a machine that could let you know everything when knowledge was much more specialized and rare was again such a more powerful idea than now when so many people carry that machine around in their pocket,” he says. “We take it for granted. For me making this project was a way to think about how memory has changed and how with its changing what it means to be human also changes.”

In conceiving Memory Theater, Chowdhury wanted to think of the project as an actual theatrical production. He would be the director and the artworks the actors, which could be ritualistic, fetishistic or “outside of time.” The structure’s exterior would be the backstage, and the interior the play.

Brian Strandberg’s sound piece, for instance, uses the audio of two black holes colliding as its driving beat. Artist Fay Ray included a ceramic snake with two heads, as well as a ceramic infinity symbol. To add a little fetishistic flavor, Dani Tull included a totem of a nine-foot phallus, while Jack Bangerter hid in the theater’s plants various watercolors of people masturbating. And for something a bit more functional, Anna Margaret crafted pillows for people to sit on while inside the theater.

“It was a way for me to take the form that started in my studio and change it and use it in a way that made sense,” Chowdhury says. “In The Garden, the paintings were backdrops for viewers to inhabit. Memory Theater again turns viewers into actors at the moments when their shadows land on the structure.”

“I hope it invites a kind of active viewing experience in deciphering the story,” he adds. “I think the whole thing becomes kind of ritualistic as people circle the outside of the structure and then enter the structure and sit. The colors and the sound-piece all enact a feeling of meditation that’s theatrical but real as well.”

Memory Theater runs until May 28 at Upfor in Portland, Oregon. Click here to see more of Srijon Chowdhury’s work.

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