For as long as I can remember, one of my biggest fears has been the thought of dying alone.
In March of 2020, my work took a sudden shift when my father was diagnosed with acute myeloma leukemia. Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, I was unable to see him before he started chemotherapy just three days later, where he was placed in hospitalized isolation for nearly one hundred days. I cannot express the torture and despair that comes with knowing your loved one is living a nightmare. No matter how hard you or I try, hopefully, we will never know… It has been difficult for me to articulate the work that emerged as a result of his passing in October 2020, but I hope that this context may give viewers insight into this work.
Built inside what was once a staple of the Eastside Bayfront Neighborhood in Erie, Pennsylvania, (formerly "Scotty's Jazz & Cigar Bar"), this site has a history and a life prior to that of its current state on 123 German Street. An Unnamed Place in Solitude; Time draws a correlation between the life of the structure and that of the individual (body, mind, spirit). Books lie stacked around the perimeter of the sparsely furnished room piled at the feet of a sole armchair; each one, a symbol for the passing of time. Hours, weeks, days spent on words read or written, this period of time cannot be regained or omitted. These mental on-goings, solitary in nature, however, they highlight the universal truths of the human condition. There is a longing for escape as one enters the void.