The Burden My most recent series titled The Burden addresses the relationships between communication and trust. This trust is at the core, necessary in helping lift burdens from others.
In the past, I have been my mother’s confidante and have listened to many of the things that burden her. Seven years ago, my mom separated from my dad and has since returned to assist him as he has terminal cancer until his passing.
In August 2019, I wrote a proposal to my mom to encourage her to write anything she wanted about my father and what she endures through her role as care-taker and then mail them to me. She would know to trust that I would not read them and instead shred them for her. This would allow her the opportunity to write to someone since she needed to send the burden somewhere. This is a simple act of love and trust between my mother and myself. The destruction of the letters wasn’t something sentimental or elaborate. The act of release was done by the act of shredding the letters. And in a way the generational burden was halted by this action. It is again related by how we can lift people’s burdens quite simply if needed.
Series and Iterations
The work on the left image is the shredded text sewn together and then frozen. I am referencing how trauma freezes part of ourselves. The image on the right is the loose shredded text that is accessible . It is also subject to being blown away and exposed. In the end, it would be inaccessible and will block the viewer from reading it.
Prototype for bell jar poems: 8 Poems on Solitude and Connection
August 2021 performance to shred everyone's burdens at an outdoor event.