"Up the bay, down the docks": Desenhos e memórias de uma comunidade das docas
Miniatura indisponível
Data
2007
Autores
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Editora
Edições Universitárias Lusófonas
Resumo
“A memória não é um instrumento para
explorar o passado, mas o seu teatro” (Walter
Benjamin), cujos actores são pessoas comuns
que recordam e recriam eventos passados
através de diferentes formas de representação.
Assim sendo, a memória é dinâmica e reconstrutiva
e permite perpetuar a experiência, bem
como criar e legitimar a identidade de cada um
(Eber and Neal, 2001:37). O objectivo deste
artigo é analisar os desenhos de Jack Sullivan
sobre a comunidade das docas de Cardiff,
conhecida como Butetown ou “Tiger Bay”, e a
sua importância enquanto prática cultural na
(re)construção de uma memória colectiva e
imaginada. De que forma é que esta comunidade
das docas é recordada e de que modo são as
suas práticas quotidianas representadas
através de desenhos? Quem e o que é que
Sullivan representa? O que deixa na obscuridade?
Como é que a memória individual se torna
em memória colectiva?
A este artigo subjaz a ideia de que os
desenhos de Jack Sullivan, que estiveram na
origem dos seus reconhecidos quadros
compilados em Tramp Steamers, Seamen &
Sailor Town, se apresentam como uma “forma
de lembrança” de eventos passados, tanto para
aqueles que viveram nesta área de Cardiff,
como para aqueles que lhe eram espacial e
temporalmente alheios. Estes desenhos constroem
as memórias individuais e colectiva,
tornando esta comunidade das docas acessível
a todos.
“Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre” (Walter Benjamin), whose actors are ordinary people who remember and recreate past events through different forms of representation. As such, memory is dynamic and reconstructive and often accessed to perpetuate experience and to create and legitimize one’s identity (Eber and Neal, 2001:37). The aim of this paper is to analyse Jack Sullivan’s sketches of Cardiff’s dockland community, known as Butetown or “Tiger Bay”, and their importance as cultural practice in the (re) construction of a collective and imagined memory. How is this dockland community remembered and how are its everyday life practices represented through sketches? What and whom does Sullivan represent? What does he leave in the obscurity? How does individual memory eventually become collective memory? This paper argues that Jack Sullivan’s sketches, which were at the origin of his renowned paintings compiled in Tramp Steamers, Seamen & Sailor Town, act as a “form of remembrance” of past events, both for those who lived in this area of Cardiff and for time and space outsiders. These sketches shape individual and collective identity and are a way of democratising cultural practices of individual and collective remembering, making knowledge of this dockland community accessible to everyone.
“Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre” (Walter Benjamin), whose actors are ordinary people who remember and recreate past events through different forms of representation. As such, memory is dynamic and reconstructive and often accessed to perpetuate experience and to create and legitimize one’s identity (Eber and Neal, 2001:37). The aim of this paper is to analyse Jack Sullivan’s sketches of Cardiff’s dockland community, known as Butetown or “Tiger Bay”, and their importance as cultural practice in the (re) construction of a collective and imagined memory. How is this dockland community remembered and how are its everyday life practices represented through sketches? What and whom does Sullivan represent? What does he leave in the obscurity? How does individual memory eventually become collective memory? This paper argues that Jack Sullivan’s sketches, which were at the origin of his renowned paintings compiled in Tramp Steamers, Seamen & Sailor Town, act as a “form of remembrance” of past events, both for those who lived in this area of Cardiff and for time and space outsiders. These sketches shape individual and collective identity and are a way of democratising cultural practices of individual and collective remembering, making knowledge of this dockland community accessible to everyone.
Descrição
Caleidoscópio : Revista de Comunicação e Cultura
Palavras-chave
COMUNICAÇÃO, SOCIEDADE, DESENHO, COMMUNICATION, SOCIETY, DRAWING