Hiraeth

2015

Inkjet prints

Written fragments in pencil

 

Hiraeth: this word is similar to the German ‘Heimweh’, Portuguese ‘Saudade’, and to the Romanian ‘Dor’. They are all supposedly untranslatable yet all chant a similar longing or nostalgia for a home one cannot return to, or a place that never really was.

 

For this project, I attempted to retrace the places I once called ‘home’, hoping to rediscover memories that were once lost. Upon revisiting I collected fragments and images I recorded with my camera and diary. The final presentation consisted of the photographs on the wall alongside handwritten fragments.

 

The handwritten fragments invoke imagery the way reading an old diary may conjure memories.