Sylvie Georgia Norman
The longing for a home that no longer exists
Installation
Paper, light, table
54 x 54 x 54 cm (excl. table)
Longing, Nostalgia, Alienation, Loss, Childhood
Norman’s installation ‘A longing for a home that no longer exists’ is a large-scale paper installation that takes the form of her family childhood house. Inspired by the text ‘Nostalgia and its discontents’ by Svetlana Boym, the piece intertwines her past with the idea of a romance with one’s own fantasy.
Growing up in Italy from the ages of 13-17 led Norman to hold onto romanticised elements from her life in England as an adolescent, most notably the house she grew up in. She plays with the idea of longing for the home that no longer exists through creating an almost shell-like house on which are engraved diary entries that documented this transitional period in her life.
The arrangement of the installation on a glass table emphasises the delicacy of nostalgia, thus reinforcing the idea of memory just being a figment of the imagination - the house no longer exists as it did.
