Made it Home /
Pamela Vickerson

- This installation is part of an ongoing project through which I build a taxonomy of memory, specifically a study and sorting of my childhood past in order to examine ideas of living and dying, absence and presence, the everyday and the sacred, and my role as witness. This work focusses on objects in the remembered space of the living room of my adolescence and is inspired by more recent events which took place in my current living room, specifically the end-of-life care of a dear family member. The reimagined living room encapsulates an engaged struggle with representation as a form of grieving for both past, and present losses. There is a sense of restlessness, as if more representation will always fail to relieve or remediate loss, but none-the-less a strong desire to try persists. I am especially interested in the mnemonic power of objects and have used the repetitive and meditative processes of crochet and embroidery to recreate the items that tether me to places, spaces, eras, and people that are no longer physically accessible. The art objects are evidence of attachment, and the activity of art making in response to loss has a healing and restorative effect psychologically and spiritually, but also socially, as creative expression of grief has the potential to be a gentle re-entry point into community after the isolating experience of loss, and an opportunity for conversation and to hear others’ stories.