I attended an amazing workshop hosted by Maryam Wahid earlier today.
We were asked to show a single photograph that represents home.
An easy task, I thought… But no. As a former chronically unhoused eclectic (who is now partially housebroken) I found myself unable to come up with a simple way to represent what home means to me in a single image… Until I looked up and saw my mantle collection.
The side of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has a huge text piece by Lawrence Weiner that says, “Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole.” — I have referred back to that piece for many years now. About how a lifetime is just that… Bits and pieces that form a semblance of a whole.
My life as a sort of urban nomad has meant I have lost a lot along the way… This collection is what I have kept. When it is unpacked, it means I am home.
.
.
.
.
Sidenote afterthought (or a poem?)….
i used to
sleep on
my stomach
vulnerable, the
belly
unprotected
easy
to kick to
wind
after we moved
to Scotland
i began to notice i
was sleeping
on my back
i must feel
safe now i
guess?
both
disconcerting and
strangely
nice?
what an odd
thing
to feel safe
but not to
understand
until one day
you are sleeping
on
your back.
