ENGRAM - Memory Trace
A photographic exhibition by Rhonda Bunyan

Engram - Memory Traces explores the concept of ENGRAMS or ‘memory traces’ through the photographic capture of natural forms to illicit memories in the brain of the viewer.
The existence of Engrams is posited by some scientific theorists to explain the persistence of memory and how memories are stored in the brain. The existence of neurologically-defined Engrams is not significantly disputed, though its exact mechanism and location has been a persistent focus of research for many decades.
Bunyan has always been fascinated with how memories are stored and how they are retrieved.
She spent months capturing shapes, patterns and shadows, light and dark, in water and sand to create ghostly black and white images, luminous and dreamlike, akin to what she perceives ‘memory traces’ to be in my own brain.
“We all have those moments when a memory surfaces, out of the blue, when one of our senses is activated. It might be activated by an old song, a scent, or a chance meeting with a stranger. The memory isn’t forced. We don’t conjure it up or actively guide it into our consciousness. It just appears… like magic. We often remark, ‘Where did that come from? I haven’t thought about that for years!’ Sometimes it is a wispy tail of a memory that leads us elsewhere, to another memory, happy or sad.’
In her photographs Bunyan interprets Engrams as fragments of memories sitting in the dark, surrounded by dark, with no life until they are activated. The luminosity of the grains of sand represent the neutrons literally lighting up to retrieve the memory.
“With this  series I invite viewers to ignite memory traces from their own brain to interpret my photographs. Thus, the artwork is not static in that it engages with the viewer’s memories so that they can recognise familiar form, or experience an emotional response to a memory.
“The viewer might only see a pattern in sand and that’s ok. They can appreciate it as a study of shapes in sand and water. Others will see objects and shapes, an animal or landscape. Others will experience an abstract response where memory fragments  piece together to illicit a feeling associated with a particular memory.”