Becky Moriarty
MA Illustration – Camberwell College of Arts, 2021
Originally from Ireland, Becky is an outsider who moved to Hackney and made it their home. Becky's work focuses on connections between memory and place in this London borough. Investigating the question: is it the imprint of recollection on a physical space that cements its identity and what happens when we take the life out of it? Can one place house many different layers of personality?
Due to the pandemic, Becky has spent the last year wandering the streets, noticing the same faces. I wanted to understand this place through collecting traces of the people living here now and before. Embodying a true flaneur, their daily walks were aimed to ‘drift’ through the landscape collecting photos, rubbings, video recordings and drawings.
The artist explores parts of the area never been to before and came across a selection of hidden gems, off the beaten track but popular with the locals. The artist believes the local places deserve the same romantic sight status, as those visited abroad. To emulate the memento you take when you visit elsewhere, Becky creates limited edition prints.
Instagram: @beckymoriarty_draws
"The themes behind my work are the connections between memory and place. I focus on traces/imprints left behind by people on physical spaces, at different moments in time."