Nostalgia split

In this new work by artist Simon Rattigan themes of nostalgia and mental illness are explored along with ideas of decolonization.
Nostalgia from its earliest definitions was as a mental illness, a particular affliction of soldiers, migrants and sailors a pathological illness and a form of melancholia. Recent definitions have moved towards a new definition of a positivist store of memories that reinforce a sense of self.
This film uses archive travel footage, television, documentary and cinema to interweave narratives of film and personal histories. Images from Brazil to Japan investigate the psychology of the colonial gaze of the exotic other as projection and fantasies of the self.