In Search of my Familiar: Beneath theWindow
In the Spring of 2015 I returned to Chicago from my second excavation of the families homesite, more specifically the home belonging to my Great-Great Aunt Bertha Lee, Beneath the window, is imaginative re-staging of the room where nearly seventy five pounds of material matter was drawn. The home had not been occupied for nearly thirty years and it left much to be desired. As a creative thinker, as a lover of detritus and place keeper, it then became my job to quilt together elements of fantasy and reality to construct a spatial portrait detailing how I assumed my aunt lived. Inspired by the memories of my relatives and visual language of Julie Dash's seminal film Daughters of the dust, I was able to fashion a altar in honor of Bert's legacy. Beneath the gallery of images you will find a link to a transcendental creative writing piece inspired by a meditative listening to the home.
