Ever since I was a child, the concept of time and places always seemed to intrigue me. Growing up and watching the world grow with me is something that always triggered a strong emotion within me. Going back to places I grew up in and reminiscing upon the memories I had in different places, and seeing how those areas have changed is something I believe we as people do not acknowledge enough. We always worry about the people who enter and leave our lives and the changes that occur in our lives but we fail to realise that the world is changing and growing at the same pace. Growing up, I unconsciously acknowledged the changes around me that were taking place but it’s quite difficult to explain the way change makes you feel. I wouldn’t call it “melancholic” because change can be positive and it is necessary for people and places to improve. However, I also wouldn’t call it a “positive” event as it is normal to miss the old state of things such as places. For this reason, I would like to explore the concept of time and the impact it has on the world around us in my project, as I believe it is a key part of not only my identity, but the identity of everyone.

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There are many key events that have recently occurred in my life that sparked this idea within me. For example, lockdown 2020. After staying home for a year and rarely ever leaving my house for around a year, I couldn’t help the notice the change in the world around me. My first time leaving my house felt very different and quite literally “new”. I noticed that not only had I changed, but that the places I used to regularly visit had undergone major change as well. Buildings had been reconstructed, walls painted, pavements refurbished and much more. Although this change was not extremely major as it had only been almost a year, everything felt very different and places such as construction sites seemed to interest me, especially when I visited buildings that were half-complete a year ago, just to find them completed and some even in use.

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Along with lockdown, the inspiration for this project also emerged from the change my surroundings experienced as I grew up. Before moving homes in early 2021, I recall visiting the area near my old primary school with my mother. It had been approximately 3 years since I had visited this place so I was very surprised to see the changes it had undergone. I remember looking through the gates of my primary school and seeing how different everything was. Walking down the road I recall feeling extremely nostalgic and I could clearly remember walking home from school with my little brother and mother. Everything felt so surreal and I wondered how it would be from the perspective of a 10 or 11 year old nowadays. Although it only lasted for a second, being reunited with the place I grew up in was both heart breaking and joyful at the same time. I say joyful as it is enjoyable to visit places that your life circled around but it is also quite melancholic to see those places change and to realise that you’ll never get the carefree experience of being a child or going back to your old school again. Realising that I’ve grown up and that some of the places that meant the world to me no longer exist is quite a harsh reality despite it being inevitable.