Mark Allen Soderstrom

Spontaneous Memoir, 2002
Leather, muslin, paper, PVA, thread, wax

11" x 15" x 15"

 

 

The western view of linear time is so pervasive that it is difficult to conceive of the myriad concepts of time that have existed in various cultures throughout history.

 

The idea of linear time is not at all a universally accepted perspective, but just one among many different possible points of view. Even amongst the avant-guard of modern physics, there is serious doubt that what we conventionally think of as the past-present-future march of time is anything concrete beyond perceived experience. The idea of the “Infinite Return” dates back beyond written history.

 

Spontaneous Memoir is a literary ouroboros. The text tells, in the first person, how its conception and manifestation came into being and how the passage of time lead to distortion in the accuracy of the memory of its’ own genesis. Eventually, an inspirational event leads to the formulation of the idea of making real such an object.