Fever Dreams

Fever Dreams examines the enduring connections between past and present, reflecting on how childhood experiences shape the ways we think, act, and feel, even at the end of our lives. Inspired by my mother’s own reflections on her childhood, the work draws a connection between the innocence of her early years and the complexities of her final days. Created using photograms of the hair my mother lost during chemotherapy, the piece becomes a bridge between those two points in her life. The hair, a tangible artifact of her physical self, serves as a delicate thread linking memory, illness, and loss.

The text within the piece is borrowed from a story she wrote about being diagnosed with cancer. These words, inspired by her fevered childhood dreams, evoke the surreal and disorienting experience of confronting mortality. The layered hair mirrors the "squiggly lines" of her dreams, blurring the boundaries between body and memory, past and present. This work considers how the traces of our earliest experiences linger within us, shaping the stories we tell and the legacies we leave behind.