Did I Do Something Wrong? (2025)
Installation with various woods, paper, crayons, paint markers, and miscellaneous objects.
Did I Do Something Wrong is an installation with various woods, a cabinet door, crayons, paint and paint markers, and miscellaneous items adorned to childhood. A piece about how childhood neglect leads to children misconstruing their realities, not knowing whether they're loved or what expectations their adults have of them without guidance. I was kind of trying to discuss how adults in life lead the narrative for the child's perception of life, and if they're not there, what will teach the child that they are valued?
In relation to the process and meaning of this piece:
I sourced a used a cabinet door, I found a baby shirt at Habitat for Humanity, a children’s book, and some princess wall decals and went from there. I decided to create a small room, within an installation space of a small room. Enclosing the space came with the themes of broken childhood and sad nostalgia. I painted only the inside of the room because the rawness of the wood and screws brought that feeling of brokenness out. I only utilized scrap wood, representing what neglected children are given, if scraps remain for them. I used crayons to draw on the walls of the room, and pieces of scrap paper to draw on. I wrote things that I thought as a kid being in those spaces, things I went through. I purposefully made the room have cracks and openings, so people were invited to look in if they felt compelled, but also blocked people out if they did not want to be part of it. I found the pink overpowering, so drawing overtop with other colours was to drown that tone out. I wanted to make this as cohesive as possible while still pertaining to the rawness of the emotions being brought out by this work. I put a teddy bear into a jar of dried up white paint to remove his facial features. I had used the stickers from the princess wall decals and scratched the eyes out, representing a lack of identity I had as a child that I feel still haunts me to this day.