During my travels, I have photographed many small, personal altars and memorials, notably in Mexico, Greece, Turkey, Sicily, Vietnam, and Japan. I find it moving how the caretakers of all these little shrines are so devoted to maintaining them.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was acutely aware of the fear and loss many of us experienced without the comfort of familiar, social rituals we depended upon in normal times. It was this loss that inspired my shrine project.
I started making smallish boxes, open on one side, sort of like a stage in a theatre, and just kept going with the idea. It turns out that populating a shrine with tiny porcelain furniture, birds, cats, fish, binoculars, books, etc. is really fun. I plan to return to these forms and incorporate the printing process for the next batch I make...
How to explain the fish trees? Well, I'm not sure, but my hands needed to make them.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was acutely aware of the fear and loss many of us experienced without the comfort of familiar, social rituals we depended upon in normal times. It was this loss that inspired my shrine project.
I started making smallish boxes, open on one side, sort of like a stage in a theatre, and just kept going with the idea. It turns out that populating a shrine with tiny porcelain furniture, birds, cats, fish, binoculars, books, etc. is really fun. I plan to return to these forms and incorporate the printing process for the next batch I make...
How to explain the fish trees? Well, I'm not sure, but my hands needed to make them.
