Caron Ottewell’s practice is concerned with the loss of memories that can occur through dissociation after traumatic events. Influenced by the artists John Stezaker, Stephen Marshall, Miranda Lopatkin and Marilene Oliver her work is an attempt, through the use of family snapshots, to search for a sense of belonging. It is a striving to fill in the gaps.  Caron’s practice examines traces of memories by deconstructing and reconstructing family photographs using both digital media and screenprinting. Although family photographs have a personal intensity that can never be matched by anybody else’s the most private collection have meanings that are social as well as personal. Her inclusion of monoprinted wallpaper designs place the work in a domestic setting as well as being a reference to the idea of ‘papering over the cracks’. This also alludes to the idea of the possibility of being able to peel back the layers that are built up over time to reveal some sort of truth. Her work concerns itself with the surface of the image and how, by breaking it down into layers, the viewer is almost able to move through the image. Caron has also been looking differing scales and sections of photographs to bring the viewer’s attention to certain details and aspects that may previously have been thought unimportant- thus questioning our relationship to memory and these kinds of images. 


Caron’s most recent work hints at something behind the surface, a glimpse of another world that is the focus of the subject but hidden from the spectator.