Throughout history and prehistory, imagery of physical spaces has been used internally as a memorisation tool to retain and recall vast amounts of information. This practice was officially introduced as the method of loci by Simonides of Ceos around 500 BC which ancient orators commonly employed in the field of Rhetoric, however, it continues to be utilised today in multiple disciplines. By exploring the history of the method of loci in this essay, I aim to determine how an understanding of the mnemonic device: imagery of physical space and objects, can be used together to influence an artist’s practice and exhibition design. The critical writer that will inform this essay is Frances Yates, an art and literature historian of the Renaissance who wrote The Art of Memory (1966): a non-fiction book following the history of memory techniques. The works of Beatrice Bonino, a set designer, curator and sculptor with a PhD in Sanskrit, have been partially imbued by Frances Yates’s book The Art of Memory (1966) (Bonino, 2023). This is shown in her exhibition If I did, I did, I die (2023): the case study that I will delve into. I will outline Yates’s writings on memory techniques, how they have been considered by Beatrice Bonino and how they are effective as an influence for exhibition design.
THE ART OF MEMORY AND THE RULE OF IMAGINED SPACES
In 1966, historian Frances Yates published a non-fiction book called The Art of Memory, exploring mnemonic devices throughout history. One of the devices that Yates identified (1966, pp. xi-3) focused on instilling imagery and places in memory, specifically using architectural types such as contemporary architecture relevant to the time period. This technique is commonly known as the method of loci, created by Simonides of Ceos around 500 BC. Originally, the method of loci was practised in the field of Rhetoric to enable orators to successfully memorise and deliver long speeches. The ancient orator would move through their imagined memory palace in an orderly manner without hindrance whilst making their speech, recalling information from the images that they placed in the architectural space (1966, pp. 22-23). Quintilian, a Roman educator and rhetorician, inferred (1966, pp. 3) that “in order to form a series of places in memory, a building is to be remembered as spacious and varied as possible, not excluding any objects that adorn the rooms”. The description of the art’s process provided by Quintilian in his book Institutio Oratoria (95 AD) came more than a century after De Oratore (55 BC) by Cicero, a Roman orator and politician (1966, pp. 21). Cicero had earlier deduced (1966, pp. 23) that our memory palaces should be “well-lighted, clearly set out in order and at moderate intervals apart. The images that are active, sharply denned and unusual should have the power of speedily encountering and penetrating the mind”. The characteristics of Quintilian and Cicero’s recommended illustrations of memory palaces can be observed in a modern exhibition titled If I did, I did, I die (2023) by sculptor and curator Beatrice Bonino.
Located at the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in New York: a gallery that showcases contemporary designers alongside historical pieces to inspire an “antiquarian inquisitiveness” (2023). The display room is naturally well-lighted and spacious, bisected by a semi-transparent latex curtain attached to the space using bows as a form of fastening. Bonino had imagined her sculptures in a mental space of her own during the process of creation (Bonino, 2023), therefore her internal image associated with place as a mnemonic device informed the physical installation of the pieces in the gallery. The works throughout the space are composed in a way that can be passed through by the viewer without difficulty; resembling a path or an architectural space as detailed by Quintilian. Quoting Simonides (1966, pp. 2), Bonino expressed (Bonino, 2023) that “just like an inner writing on wax, the objects are like words positioned in a potential space, at first only mental, oen erased and rethought. The objects are the active images that return what she needs to remember when she walks past them, memory shaped into marks of what she wishes to remember”.
FASTENING THOUGHTS AND ATTACHING MEMORIES TO SPACES
Throughout If I did, I did, I die (2023), Beatrice Bonino works with notions of ephemerality, memory and ideas of fastening. She uses found, everyday building materials that have been around for a long period of time as the composition of her mixed media sculptures (Bonino, 2023). Bonino’s interest in binding and fastening repurposed materials to surfaces that is unnatural for them refers back to the method of loci of attaching memories to spaces. For example, within the collection Bonino created stools using latex: a difficult material to manipulate and hold in a fixed position due to its slippery nature. Bonino used nails in this instance as a form of binding to secure something (the material) that wanted to change. Other materials included in these pieces titled 10 & 11 SENZA TITOLO (2023) are wood, foam and rhinestones. By creating objects with materials that defy their usual expectations, Beatrice Bonino is materialising part of the memory technique revealed by Yates (1966, pp. 22-23) of instilling imagery of distinct objects in the memory that can be used as a sign or a reminder. Despite being non-functional in their traditional means, the objects serve a visual purpose in which they may act as a point of navigation, both internally and physically, as the viewer moves through the exhibition space.
As well as using found domestic materials, Beatrice Bonino uses black clay: an everyday building material, to create hand-crafted ceramic sculptures. Bonino’s interest in working with black clay comes from her academic studies: the methodologies she discovered through ancient languages (Bonino, 2021). As surmised in Indian Philosophy, the meditation that occurs during the process of making the ceramic works permeates the form and the unique matter of the piece (Bonino, 2023). Ceramic on Pedestal (2023) or 1 SENZA TITOLO (2023) is one example of Bonino’s ceramic works, made of a ceramic vessel, wood, plexiglass, foam and lead. Although non-functional like Bonino’s other artworks, the ceramics are filled with thoughts. In an interview for the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery with artist and writer Erik Benjamins (Bonino, 2023), Bonino’s ceramics were compared to “ghosts of domestic objects”. Bonino expanded upon this stating that “in every coil of the piece, some thoughts go in and they get stuck in there... they are thoughts that she doesn’t want to get out so they become trapped ghosts”. This parallel between the ceramic and trapped thoughts is drawn from what Frances Yates detailed in The Art of Memory (1966), and recalled from Beatrice Bonino (Bonino, 2023): “a piece is the summation of all the thinking, the process, the life that has got it to that particular point... you donate something to the piece and the piece returns to you”. Essentially, the thoughts that the artist pours into a design during the creation stage will return back to the artist in the form of a memory when they revisit this piece, in the exhibition or inside their memory palace.
THE METHOD OF LOCI EFFECTIVENESS AND INFLUENCE ON EXHIBITION DESIGN
As evidenced, the application across multiple disciplines of the mnemonic devices: imagery of physical space and objects has proved to be effective from ancient history to the modern day. Quintilian provided the most clear reason for why this may be (1966, pp. 22-23): “for when we return to a place aer a considerable absence, we not merely recognise the place itself, but remember things that we did there, and recall the persons whom we met and even the unuttered thoughts which passed through our minds when we were there before.” To outline, Quintilian used a reflection of an experience in physical space as a starting point and transferred it internally as a tool for memorisation. By having an understanding of this reason, Beatrice Bonino was able to use what Quintilian inferred to develop her own physical space adorned with objects, the active images. She applied the same technique with a different structure: starting with an image of a physical space in her mind as she created her sculptures in the studio, then manifested them into a physical space for an exhibition that could be viewed by more than herself. By applying the method of loci to a physical space, an artist (in this case Beatrice Bonino) has been able to create an exhibition that is intimate in nature due to the artist's thoughts that were donated to each piece during the creation process. Additionally, the artist has created an accessible and viewer friendly space on account of it being “spacious and varied as possible, not excluding any objects that adorn the rooms” (1966, pp. 3) and “well-lighted, clearly set out in order and at moderate intervals apart”
(1966, pp. 23).
CONCLUSION
By exploring Beatrice Bonino’s If I did, I did, I die (2023) in context to The Art of Memory (1966) by Frances Yates and Simonides’ method of loci, we were able to determine that having an understanding of the mnemonic devices: imagery of physical space and objects, can influence an artist’s practice and exhibition design. It was through the outline of Quintilian and Cicero’s descriptions of the way that we should move through our memory palaces that demonstrated how places help memory by regard of association (1966, pp. 23). Employing these rules of place first to our internal architectural space as a memorisation tool can aer be manifested into a design for an exhibition. Inside both imagined and physical spaces, objects (the artist’s works) are active images that can be used to serve as a reminder for what we wish to remember. These objects can be fastened and binded to attach memories to a space, as Beatrice Bonino did in her exhibition. To end, this essay was able to deduce that the method of loci is an effective tool to be utilised in exhibition design as it can even facilitate a more viewer friendly space when the rules of place are understood.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bonino, B. (2023) ‘Beatrice Bonino Interview’. Interview with Beatrice Bonino. Interviewed by Erik Benjamins for Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery, February. Available at: https://jacquelinesullivangallery.com/articles/beatrice-bonino-interview (Accessed: 29 May 2023).
Bonino, B. (2023) If I did, I did, I die [Exhibition]. Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery. 23 February-15 April 2023. Available at: https://jacquelinesullivangallery.com/collections/if-i-did-i-did-i-die (Accessed: 29 May 2023).
Bonino, B. (2021) ‘Exploring Narratives of Non-functionality and “The Great Mundane”: ZOOM Studio Visit with Sculptor Beatrice Bonino’. Interview with Beatrice Bonino. Interviewed by Ewan Wadell for Hund Hund, 2 February. Available at: https://www.hundhund.com/blogs/stories/exploring-narratives-of-non-functionality-and-the-great-mundane-zoom-studio-visit-with-sculptor-beatrice-bonino (Accessed: 29 May 2023).
Bonino, B. (2023) 1 SENZA TITOLO [Sculpture]. Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery, New York (Viewed: 29 May 2023).
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