The Wisdom of Ruins

Exhibited at Critical Distance 2020, curated by Dana Snow and Michelle Beck

photo credit: Michelle Beck

The Wisdom of Ruins
Exhibited at Critical Distance 2020, curated by Dana Snow and Michelle Beck
photo credit: Michelle Beck

Monumental Witness

Shadow box, my daughter’s umbilical cord, lace pillow, framed photographs; from left to right, 8” x 6”, 11” x 11.25” x 4”, 12” x 10”

Photo Credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

Monumental Witness (detail)

My grandmother takes a picture of my mom and a baby me in a fleeting moment of joy.

Photo Credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

Monumental Witness (detail)

A picture I took of a section of the ruins in my mother’s birthplace, Salemi, Sicily, December 2018.

Photo Credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

Monumental Witness (detail)
Shadow box, my daughter’s umbilical cord, lace pillow

Photo Credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

Monumental Witness (detail)

Photo Credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

A Dying Language
Found chair, doily, headphones; 34” x 15” x 16”
Two sets of headphones playing a recording of my late grandmother reciting a nursery rhyme in the dying language of Sicilian, to either a plaster cast replica or, when I am in the exhibition space, the literal box that holds the remains of my daughter’s ashes.

Photo Credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

A Dying Language

Found chair, doily, headphones; 34” x 15” x 16”

Two sets of headphones playing a recording of my late grandmother reciting a nursery rhyme in the dying language of Sicilian, to either a plaster cast replica or, when I am in the exhibition space, the literal box that holds the remains of my daughter’s ashes.

photo credit: Yann Gracia

A Dying Language

Found chair, doily, headphones; 34” x 15” x 16”

Two sets of headphones playing a recording of my late grandmother reciting a nursery rhyme in the dying language of Sicilian, to either a plaster cast replica or, when I am in the exhibition space, the literal box that holds the remains of my daughter’s ashes.

photo credit: Yann Gracia

A Dying Language

Found chair, doily, headphones; 34” x 15” x 16”

Two sets of headphones playing a recording of my late grandmother reciting a nursery rhyme in the dying language of Sicilian, to either a plaster cast replica or, when I am in the exhibition space, the literal box that holds the remains of my daughter’s ashes.

photo credit: Yann Gracia

A Dying Language

Found chair, doily, headphones; 34” x 15” x 16”

Two sets of headphones playing a recording of my late grandmother reciting a nursery rhyme in the dying language of Sicilian, to either a plaster cast replica or, when I am in the exhibition space, the literal box that holds the remains of my daughter’s ashes.

video credit: Yann Gracia

The Wisdom of Ruins

Installation view

Photo credit: Ishkhan Ghazarian

A Dying Recipe

2019Cookie, plaster cast urn, found stone tiles; 11” x 11” x 7.5”

Cuddura is a traditional Sicilian Easter cookie that my grandmother used to make every year before she died. No one in my family makes it anymore. In November, I learned the recipe and served it at an event I hosted called Death & Cookies where people gathered over food to casually talk about death and mourning.