BYGONE photographs, well-used pieces of furniture and trinkets that were once much loved have been brought together by a University of Derby student to form an installation art piece for her final-year degree.
All the items behind the door and windows of creative expressive therapies degree student Mary Stephanou's memory room were found lost, abandoned or donated to charity shops.
Mary's exhibit is one of many works by students from the university forming the annual degree exhibition, called The Big Show.
It features free public displays of students' work in subjects such as crafts, fashion, textiles, fine art, film, design, theatre, visual communications and architecture.
Mary was inspired to bring together the items found in charity shops, skips, parks and abandoned buildings to explore the idea that each object holds memories but that they can only be known to their original owners.
She said: "Everything in the room – even its doors and windows – had been left or abandoned, and we have no way of knowing who they originally belonged to, or who the photographs are of.
"But despite this, you can feel that every item was once important to someone – whether it formed part of their home or captured a moment in their lives.
"By bringing them all together, the room feels like it holds a host of memories, and it is up to the visitor to draw their own conclusions about what they could be."
Senior lecturer Jean Bennett, said: "Mary's room is incredibly atmospheric and evocative. As you enter the space, its lighting and odour touches many of the senses and you can't help but be affected by the room as a whole as well as by the individual items you encounter. It is a wonderful exploration of memory, attachment and association."
Mary's installation took many months and visits around Derbyshire to complete. During one trip to Belper, she came across an abandoned front door.
Realising it would be the perfect entrance to her space, she had to transport it back to Derby by bus.
She said: "I found many of the items while carrying out a photography project where I took self-portraits in abandoned buildings."
The installation forms part of the creative expressive therapies degree final year exhibition at the university's Britannia Mill site, on Mackworth Road.
All displays will be open to the public from Saturday to Tuesday, June 11, at the University's Markeaton Street and Britannia Mill sites.
For more information, visit www.derby.ac.uk/academic schools/bigshow.
