The Summer of Installation: Reaching

My original concept for this installation has shifted. Originally I thought this would be a triumphant piece in which the figure is fully realized and has overcome obstacles and expectations and is on a new journey. I was wrong. She is not there yet, because I am not there yet. This has become a pivotal piece and is just the turning point. This figure is captured in the middle of the act of trying to pull herself up from her past into a blank world. She is using stark, dark branches that may not be substantial enough to hold her weight, but there is nothing else to grasp. The lush nature beneath her is a symbol of the life that she has been brought up in. There are expectations by family and society to follow a path that was laid out for her, but she needs to find her own path. She no longer wants to stroll along, looking down at the pretty path full of pretty things. She longs to look up and to stand up on her own feet. She is still rooted in the familiarity of home and family and culture. These things feel comfortable and easy and she would probably be just fine staying there, and yet where is the growth and self-improvement in that world? Instead, she is looking up and grabbing hold of whatever she can reach. She isn’t running away from the past, it will always be part of her life, her foundation, but it is time to step out of these expectations of home and family in order to reinvent herself. She has not reached high enough to see what is out there, but she’s going to try to stand up anyway. The future is empty and full of light, waiting for her to fill it with creations and dreams of her own. The spindly branches she uses are the drudgery of everyday adult life, the career that has become monotonous, the MFA that is proving to be so challenging (but rewarding), the fact that she has been on her own for over a decade and has always been independent out of necessity, continuing to fill her time with the same obligations even if her ideals and goals have shifted slightly away. None of these things are what she wants her life to end on, but they are handholds to the future. The past looks pretty comforting, but she’s going to try anyway. She is exposed and vulnerable in her current state, but she’s going to try anyway. The future is disjointed and uncertain, but she’s going to try anyway.