SAFE SPACE (2020)
ABSTRACT
The “Safe Space” installation creates a space in which there is an ongoing dialogue between two disparate narratives; joyful childhood memories of home and jarring trauma. By exploring memory, nostalgia, and home, the installation uses an intimate room of soft fabrics, projection, and audio to explore the duality of these ideas. When it comes to home, we must acknowledge that there can be multiple truths. While we may remember our childhood home as joyful, trauma can distort these memories into something unrecognizable. “Safe Space” acknowledges the irony behind “safe spaces” and allows the viewer to see into my memories surrounding my trauma and my home.
This work was originally created for FLUX — Senior Art Exhibition at Pacific University.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The city of Las Vegas is known for its gambling, entertainment, and nightlife; and the home of the deadliest mass shooting in modern history. Fifty-eight people lost their lives on October 1, 2017. I knew four of those people, one of them being my childhood friend. Las Vegas was my home for eighteen years, and after that event, my perception of where I grew up and my memories around it permanently changed.
By juxtaposing two opposing ideas of home, I question the ideas of security and safety and what that looks like when home, something so sacred and intimate, is tainted with trauma. With this work, a projection shines on a soft duvet, draped across the walls. The projection plays a collection of my childhood videos and friends’ cell phone footage from that October event. Just like our own memories, these snippets of time are distorted into an indistinguishable disarray. The distortion allows the viewers to feel unsettled about what is happening, and question the reality of the moments being displayed. By being isolated in the room, the viewers have an experience similar to my own consciousness.
With this work, I explore the duality of home and the irony of a “safe space.” What does it mean to be home? What happens when that home is disrupted?