Dedicated to those who are no longer with us...

On the occasion of the artistic journey that is planned for the next few days in distant China, the Small Altars were born to honour our roots.

To bring back to the present the defining memory of the first loss.

To pull from the drawers of the soul the day my great-grandmother passed away. Nonna, as we affectionately called her, the beautiful black-skinned woman with ebony hair and lily-white skin, being for me, the oldest person in the family who is still etched deeply in my memory. The furthest link in the family chain, my maternal grandmother, who I was able to see just at the age of seven, closing her eyes forever. 

As the years go by, we realize each day that life is full of losses, big or small that define us and sometimes even have the power to change our path.

Can a child really grasp the existence of death? Can a child accept the absolute certainty of this world? Can a child accept the fact that from one moment to the next, will never see their own loved one again?

For a child there is no death.

I must confess that every piece, each material that can be discerned on the Joss papers forming the basis of my Small Altars, seem to function as a small dose of an alternative therapy against grief, against the pain that loss leaves in its wake. An unconscious process, with creation at its core, it expects to soothe the trauma and heal the soul.

With age, we realize that this is the truth..., only when we stop remembering them do people die...