REMNANTS

I present my family history with collected fabric remnants and worn clothing. As I sew pieces of fabric together to form their faces and bodies, each portrait is tangible on my lap. A bit of cloth from my dad's dress shirt, a swath from my mother's sewing box and a scrap from a silk pillowcase are joined and a new whole emerges.

Stories unfold, crossing years and relationships across the Middle East and Europe. I was not there in 1912 when my great-grandparents were married. I did not know my grandmother in 1928, or my mother when she was four, or eleven, or twenty-four. Though each ancestor came from a different time and place, I imagine my family members in the same mental landscape.

My grandmother as a child stands beside my mother as an adult. A glance meant for someone in my father's family redirected towards someone in my mother's. Reconfiguring their relationships to one another, I dwell on what has been and embrace what is.

INSTALLATION

OPENING RECEPTION

May 4th, 2007

ARTWORK