Wayfinding To Our Memories — Wireframe P404 copy 1

Wayfinding to Our Memories is a four-metre tall artwork created in collaboration with Year 1 and Year 5 students at Cherry Orchard Academy in Ebbsfleet, Kent. Through a series of workshops, young people reflected on their memories of home and their local area, listening to audio and film clips from the Citizen Archive featuring older residents' recollections. Inspired by these experiences, the students crafted wayfinding signs and drawings, weaving their own memories together with those from the archive.

The artwork features symbols including bunting, drawn from a memory shared by a 90-year-old resident, and ice cream, a memory shared across generations. Ships and trains nod to the area's shipping and industrial heritage, holding past and present together in a single image.

Constructed from unpainted aluminium, the artwork's reflective surface echoes the nature of memories themselves, mirror-like and ever-changing. Over time, the shine of the aluminium may soften and fade, much as memories might shift and settle with age. The choice of material captures how memories reflect their environments and evolve through time.

The piece serves as both symbol and portal, inviting viewers to pause, reflect on their own memories, and notice the connections that move between generations and across the experiences of a place.

Commissioned by Cement Fields as part of the Ebbsfleet Citizen Archive. Beautifully fabricated by Red Collective London. Structural engineer: Alice Ward.

Wayfinding to Our Memories, Ebbsfleet, 2024. Photo by Julia Forman..

Wayfinding to Our Memories, Ebbsfleet, 2024. Photo by Julia Forman.

A Year 1 student cuts the ribbon at the official opening of Wayfinding to Our Memories, Cherry Orchard Academy, Ebbsfleet, 2024. Photo by Julia Forman.

Wayfinding to Our Memories, Cherry Orchard Academy, Ebbsfleet, 2024. Photo by Julia Forman.

Wayfinding to Our Memories in production at the Red Collective London studio, 2024. Photo by Red Collective London.

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