Re
- visit
(2015)
This is Oldway Mansion. Construction of the building was started by Isaac Merrit Singer in 1871, who died before it was completed in 1875. Alterations were made to the Mansion by his son Paris Singer and completed in 1907. In 1946 the estate was sold to Paignton Council at a discounted rate and the house and its grounds were opened to the public. It is believed that this transaction was made on the premise that the Mansion was being left to 'the people of Paignton'.
This is where my parents were married, on December 5th 1988. My brother and I played in Oldway Mansion as children and both attended Oldway Primary School. Even in adolescence, my sixth-form ‘prom night’ was held in the ballroom here.
27 years after they were married here my parents moved back to Paignton and I re-visited the space. Oldway Mansion has recently been sold to hotel chain Akkeron. Its doors are now closed to the public and the premises is guarded 24/7.
In this kind of childhood place there threatens a disability to connect with the present. This distance is difficult to navigate and define. By presenting images from my mum’s family album alongside the photographs taken during this revisitation in 2015, I am putting past with the present. The purpose of this juxtaposition, in the face of change, is to illustrate this distance - a weaving together weave together to form a different kind of interpreted space.