Trente Sept Ans

“Trente Sept Ans” Thirty-seven years. 
Created in September of 2019, this piece was conceived to commemorate the anniversary of my father’s death on September 4th, 1982. It is a personal response to the event and it narrates the navigation through life, from the mind and body of a child to present day.  It is my out of body experience, looking inward.  

Strips of torn fabric weave and knot their way through layers of wire traveling through pieces of burnt and decaying wood. 
Frayed edges hang loosely, marking constant vulnerability. 
Gaps widen and the fabric becomes narrow before it twists and turns through another layer, bridging the years.  
Wire scraps attach randomly and run in circles, strangling and taunting with every turn. 
It is a messy cage where the fabric can almost touch the edges but then, always, the wire brings it back to those familiar patterns.  
The fabric moves in and out, repeating the patterns of youth into adulthood.  
As the years progress I am starting to feel free and some days, less broken.  
I am finding myself. 
I am bound by the baggage.  I will always pack it, I suppose.  
I work on getting bigger inside, instead of tolerating the constant nag of shrinking.
The fabric loosens and begins to follow the path to comfort in mind and body. 
I will not hide as much.   I will begin to feel full and stand up straighter.   I will take up more space.  
I will see that hinge and know what it feels like to jump but never quite fall all the way to the bottom.  
I will swing and I will be still,  always remaining attached to the years that have built my insides.  

Above the hinge the following words are written:
“Treize mille cinq cent cinq jours”
Translation: Thirteen thousand five hundred and five days.  

Materials:  Wood, fabric, wire and hinge
Size: 72" x 37" x 5"
Created in 2019.