Impossible Places, Opening May 3

The hands of time change everything and everyone. Leicester collagist Georgia Harden will explore this reality in her solo show, Impossible Places. Opening at BlackBird Frame & Art in May, the exhibition will feature collages made from pages of National Geographic magazines from the 1970s. “The coloring and grainy texture of the photos from this decade reminds me of snapshots of my parents when they were teenagers, [evoking] an indistinct nostalgia for ‘the good old days,’” says Harden. “Collage seems an appropriate medium for this exploration of memory as it requires deconstructing images from reality and rearranging them into something new.” According to the artist, she will be recreating moments from the past, but not with exacting accuracy. Much like a memory itself, there will be glaring gaps and addendums that don’t quite track. A Scottish castle may neighbor an ancient Babylonian tomb, for instance. Or, “outlandish jungles” may teem with foliage from Florida and Tanzania. At first glance, the scenes might not make much sense. But, says Harden, “a memory of a place or an experience is not the same as the actual thing. Memory has been infused with emotion and distilled by time.”