Memory (1971):
In July 1971, Mayer began experimenting with her memory. She shot a roll of 35mm film each day, and kept a rigorous daily journal. The project resulted in a staggering total of 1,100 photographs and nearly six hours of recorded poetry.
In February 1972, Memory was shown at 98 Greene Street, an art and performance space in New York City. The unedited photographs were mounted in order, with the recorded narration playing in the gallery. Since the original showing, Memory has been exhibited in various condensed forms, including a 1974 version titled Remembering, and a text edition released in 1975 by North Atlantic Books.
The full project was not exhibited again until 2016, by the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. In September 2017, Memory displayed by CANADA gallery in New York City.
Of the exhibit, CANADA stated: showing "Memory forty-five years after its initial debut emphasizes the profound nature of memory itself as utterly intangible and unknowable despite myriad attempts to capture it, and how blurry the line between past and present has become as the speed at which memories are generated accelerates every day."
In May 2020, Siglio press will release a full-color edition of Memory, with over 1,100 photographs and 200 pages of text. This will be the first edition of Memory to contain both text and photographs. For more information, check out the Siglio site.
