As in his previous work Paddy Lamb’s paintings continue to ask questions about traditional notions of history, memory, and monument, particularly the recent tendency to project our own desires, weaknesses, and passions on the past without any opposition – for the past cannot speak. He is troubled by the predictability and certainty of our times and the papering over of mistakes and past endeavours.
The forms that are represented here are not simply walls, gates, or plains within a landscape. They are also facades - ‘learning walls’ that hold the imprint of people and the stories and events that have accompanied them. In each case the aim is to invite the viewer into a space that suggests connections to memory and history without predicting a certain outcome.
"[Monument is] that which preserves memory through its very being, that which speaks directly, through the fact that it was not intended to speak - the layout of territory that testifies to the past activity of human beings better than any chronicle of their endeavours; a household object, a piece of pottery, a stele, a pattern painted on a chest, or a contract between two people we know nothing about."
Jacques Ranciere. Figures of History
