Ieva Simkonyte

My project is about storytelling. It is about the profound realisation of a feeling that everyone around us is living their lives as complex and intense as our own. The project is based on a belief that everything is a story and everyone is a storyteller. We are storytellers in ways we understand process and frame what happens to us. We single out short moments of our lives, record and collect them in a form of memories, tangible objects or digital data. We collect and curate memories that form out personalities, and it allows us to tell something fundamental about ourselves.

Sonder is a project about plurality within a story. It’s about almost infinite layers of narratives within every object, memory or story. Our memories are what makes us, us. We collect pictures and everyday objects that become souvenirs of events framing who we are. Those souvenirs transform into extensions of our personalities and somewhat holders of our stories; times we live in, communities and cultures we belong to and identify with.

The project tells a story of a woman who lived in south east London for over a decade. I found a box full of her pictures, letters and documents in a junk shop in Greenwich, and I instantly felt a connection to her photographs. These pictures became a source of curiosity and interest for me, and in collaboration with History of Design student, Laura Ridpath, we uncovered a multi-layered reality behind the photographs. Treating them as historical record, personal documentation and artistic inspiration.

This project attempts to tell a woman’s story, but also uncover the infinite layers of stories around it. Non-linear storytelling attempts to leave voids that the viewer is invited to fill in with one’s own imagination, memories and interpretations, transforming it into a different story every time someone looks at it.