Goldfish Memoirs

1993
Country: UK
Duration: 26 mins
Colour,
Sound: Sound
Available Format/s: DVD / Digibeta tape / SD Digital file

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Commissioned for the Tyne International exhibition of contemporary art in 1993, this single monitor version of John Adam’s installation has the intelligent humour and idiosyncrasy characteristic of his work. One part of the tape is a story told in photographs (which are used to allude to photographic memory) about a man treated with a drug to give him perfect memory and fantastic intelligence. However in spite of the great benefits these attributes bring, the agreement to take the drug turns into a Faustian pact. The narrative is inter-cut with interviews with a number of people on the subject of memory. We get a wide range of discussion on the subject, from the freshness of a child’s idea of the brain to the serious and thought-provoking ideas of artists and psychologists.

More works by John Adams

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