You Grew Into Me attempts to express the relationship we have with our memories - how they shape us and, in turn, what it takes to transform them. The show featured works on stretched paper, which formed a life-sized tree made up of dense and intricate line work. The tree was wired with microphones performed percussively (accompanied by voice and cello) at the opening and closing receptions. The walls were lined with found bottles filled with preserved notes, old letters received or never sent, poems and mementos - memories suspended in amber liquid time capsules. One reads:
Perpetual longing is infinity...never to meet the amalgamation of two souls intermingling once more leaves one only with memories. Leaving me here to my own devices...what story will I weave with these loose threads? Surely one that is passionate and proud. Between my father and I it would be no other way. With this death I remember to live. And hope that you are doing just the same.
Regarding my use of the tree imagery in this piece: A tree grows up, a tree grows out, around a fence, toward the sun. Cuts and nicks in its trunk show scars like skin. Like living tales. What we choose to remember, how we remember and what we hold on to speak louder than words...