STAY WARM, DAD.
On September 8, 2008, my dad was evicted from his apartment where he lived alone in Warrenville, IL. He had made plans with the complex management to be moved out by 5 pm that day, however the town sheriff and a team of workers knocked on his door at 8:45 that morning and told my dad that he had 15 minutes to be cleared out. Because of this miscommunication between the management and the sheriff, my dad's eviction was carried out violently as the team of workers tossed his possessions down the flight of stairs and into the pouring rain, destroying most of it.
This event occurred 8 days after I had arrived in Ireland to study abroad for the next 6 months. After my dad had told me what happened, we exchanged frequent e-mails during the first month of his homelessness. Studying at an art school where I was expected to explore various creative ideas, I found it difficult to focus my mental energy on much outside my dad's well-being and I eventually embraced that. We spent a large portion of my time in Ireland sharing our experiences with one another through e-mails and photographs as an attempt to be close to one another from a distance of 7,000 miles. This work includes a selection of the moments we shared while apart.
This body of work has been exhibited as a small book as well as a large scale installation.
For the installation, I made a tent using the tarps that my dad had used to protect his belongings from the rain. Inside the tent was a projected slideshow of my dad's cell phone images from the eviction and an audio piece of my brother and I reading the e-mails that were exchanged between my dad and I.
The Burren College of Art Main Gallery, Ballyvaughan, Ireland. December 2008. (installation)
Co-Prosperity Sphere, Transparent Reflect curated by Caitlin Arnold and Aron Gent. August 2009. (installation)
The Arcade Gallery, Albert P. Weisman Scholar's exhibition. October 2009. (book)
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