E C H O E S O F I N S T R U C T I O N

About the work

Presented in an abandoned elementary school as part of the group exhibition What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2018), this work is deeply informed by its surroundings. The space itself becomes an active participant, shaping the narrative and evoking a sense of memory, transition, and instability.

Two objects inhabit the space, both subtly suggesting movement: one leans against the wall—a school board, a remnant of past instruction—while the other stands independently, evoking the presence of an individual. The relationship between these forms is not fixed but rather open to associations, allowing the work to unfold through interpretation. A poetic tension emerges, where the familiarity of these objects is disrupted, inviting reflections on fragility, impermanence, and the instability of what we perceive as certain.

Childhood exists in a delicate state of transition—an in-between space where identities are shaped, lessons are absorbed, and innocence meets the first glimpses of reality. Schools, as spaces of structure and discipline, hold traces of these formative years, yet they also become sites of erasure as time moves forward. The abandoned school setting evokes a quiet nostalgia, a confrontation with the past where echoes of learning, movement, and play remain suspended. The blackboard, once a vessel for knowledge, is now a silent witness to absence. The standing object reflects the individual navigating this uncertain landscape, balancing between memory and presence, past and future.

By objectifying emotions and engaging with the duality of presence and absence, I aim to create a dynamic interplay between audience and author. The work does not dictate meaning but rather offers a space for shifting perspectives, encouraging viewers to navigate their own connections and responses. In doing so, it transforms the act of looking into an experience of participation—where the boundaries between memory, reality, and expectation remain fluid.