Amanda Maria Milne was born in Wales in the UK, has a home in Ireland, worked as an artist and teacher in the United Arab Emirates and is currently living and working in Shanghai, China.

Amanda’s work maps the physical traces and hidden emotional landscapes of memory. Using her knowledge of homeopathy combined with analytical research and study of cause and effect Amanda makes series of works that are interconnected with theme’s such as ‘Dis-ease’ (lack of ease), ‘lines in isolation’, and ‘10,000 + 1’.

To express the ephemeral nature of memory Amanda uses different techniques including traditional techniques of papier-mâché, stop motion animation, linear drawings using semitransparent parchment & archival inks and photography. Amanda’s earlier works were figurative and explored the human condition through personal events that led to the study of homeopathy and personal beliefs in a holistic approach to diagnosing and treating the human condition and she continues to explore ways to develop conceptual art that engages the viewer to pause and reflect.

On July 5th 2020 I arrived in Xiamen by train from Shanghai to begin a month’s residency at CEAC. I had clear objectives and a detailed plan but as I researched my theme ‘physical traces of the hidden emotional landscape of memory’ I started to contemplate my reasoning behind the project: What do I really want to explore? What is it that I really want to communicate? Why I have I chosenthis theme? What links are there in my past and present works? What legacy do I want to leave my children so they will know me as an artist instead of a mother? I looked back at hundreds of photographs I have taken over the years sorting through the snap shots of family gatherings, birthdays, Christmases, school plays, graduations, butterflies, moths and flowers selecting out the other photographs I have taken when I am on my own. These are images of discarded objects, man-made structures, reflections, shadows, graveyards and my road kill collection of animals hit by cars, which I still find hard to look at and decided not to select.The everyday discarded or lost objects found out of context evoke emotional memories of eternal loss and abandonment in contrast to the reflected images that are fleeting memories in space and time created by elemental forces of nature on the landscape that capture a transitory moment and provide solace almost another worldly presence for my collection of memories. While man-made structures
declare order and provide physical solid layers of memories that help to bind the other
remembrances into a solid framework.

I took another look at the three images that stimulated this project. The images show
clearly my shadow reflected on a rocky outcrop of stones in the mountains of Hatay, Turkey.
Representing a fleeting moment in time that had taken hundreds of thousands of years of the
earths formation to create. I always saw the layers of time and the past in these photographs,
symbolising past memories layered in the rocks. These three photographs started a journey of
creative exploration that developed into an autobiographical book about dis-ease ‘not at ease’
throughout my life.

During this period of contemplation at CEAC, I was able to reflect and see more clearly the
connections in my work and the direction I want to take, as Anselm Kiefer said “artists draw
connections and tie the invisible threads between things” and I feel having the opportunity
to focus on my artwork during this this residency has given me the chance to do just that.

Gallery