Manning McBride

Courting Memories: Media Reparations for the Eschewed

The image flickers to a beat.

…

And shuts off.

My own reflection staring back at me.

This foreign man knows he is a foreign man. I cannot stand their television programs. It is not the language they speak that I do not understand. But how they act. There is a language I must learn. A language I must forget.

…

The image returns.
Fenerbahce lead one-nil.

Courting Memories offers a refuge for the estranged emigres of Hackney. An unkempt garden occupies the core, enveloped by the gallery with spaces for repair on the periphery. A light structure integrates the new architecture with the existing context. The external skin obscures and protects. The internal skin reveals and reflects. The ill-defined gallery draws workers towards the core. The art of repair becomes an act of display. Chance encounters are multiplied. Memories are shared. Memories are made.