Manderley

"Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

Both Daphne du Maurier's gothic novel Rebecca, and the film version by Alfred Hitchcock, open with the heroine dreaming that she visits the charred remains of Manderley, her once beautiful home on the coast of Cornwall.  The rest of story is also filled with constant reminders of the past that encroach upon the present, often in the guise of Rebecca, Maxim de Winter's dead first wife. Rebecca's presence is so powerful that she is given the title of the novel, while the narrator, Maxim de Winter's second wife, remains nameless throughout.

The artworks in Manderley explore how the past is inexorably linked to the present - dragging behind like an anchor with no means of escape - and the quest for identity in the face of a futile attempt to outrun one's past.