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Monuments (2023)
Originally entitled For Shun, after a dearly departed childhood friend, the project has experienced shifts in name and shape. Being centered around something which sits so close to my heart, a protective force is pulled into the nature of the images and the form of the project.
It is an origamic body of work contained within itself and its emotionally obstructive form. Within the images, the paper’s folds are emblematic of this external dynamic. There are cracks out of which the emotional content could seep. But mostly, this body of work is made from stone.
The structures themselves hold an alternative meaning that is not available on the image’s surface. As a child I was taught to fold these tiny constructions by my friend Shun. After he showed me how to fold these ‘bins’ he wanted to teach me to make cranes. He told me, if you could fold a thousand cranes you could make a wish. One that would always come true. I never managed, and have been stuck ever since folding these simple but emotionally weighty parcels into which I stuff my grief, confusion and guilt over his passing.