Being mainly concerned with the representation of childhood and false memories, Rebekah Lawrence works across media as she plays with the concept of memory and how its malleable nature allows for manipulation and distortion. Raising the question that there seems to be an artistic obsession with personal histories and relaying childhood within art, these themes clearly resonate throughout her work as she questions society and the art world.
Seen as a truly contemporary artist, she tries to recreate her own memories from childhood in a way that triggers a potential false memory from the viewer. She does this by choosing subjects that are seen to be ‘universally relatable’, such as using the senses, especially smell, which is seen to be the most pivotal initiator of memory. Then she develops a series of videos including some of the most renowned instigations of memory, such as chocolate spread, sun-cream, talcum powder and play-doh and covering herself with these substances. There is a definite self-biographic nature to the work, as a performance element echoes through the art.
Other concepts within her work include excess, indulgence and often sexualisation, which can contradict the innocence of childhood memory. This then creates an interesting play between real and false memories which the artist will be seen to incorporate within the SHIFT exhibition.