me, you, us

Collage, Textile Design

me, you, us is a body of work grounded in care — the care I extend to others and the care I am learning to give myself. Through this project, I reconstruct memories from my childhood as a way of exploring my identity and reimagining what family can mean. The work is a conversation between myself and my family, rooted in the complexities of intimacy, trauma, tenderness, and reconnection.

My childhood was a space of contradiction: moments of joy interwoven with emotional turbulence. As I’ve grown older and begun forming relationships beyond my family, I’ve come to recognise the unmet emotional needs that shaped me. This project attempts to give form to that realisation — to hold both the beauty and pain of my early experiences with honesty and compassion. I’m exploring the possibility of an alternative past, one that acknowledges the duality of care and hurt, and allows space for emotional repair.

Photography, particularly old family photos, plays a significant role in this process. These images often romanticise the past, freezing it in a nostalgic frame that can feel both comforting and misleading. My intention is to disrupt that static romanticism and open up these archives as sites for emotional reimagining. By disjointing figures and scenes — sometimes drawing them physically closer, sometimes revealing their distance — I rework the narrative of my childhood into a space where healing and gentleness can co-exist.

Textile elements thread through the work as both metaphor and method — representing the entanglement of familial bonds and the intentional practice of care. Through layering, cutting, and stitching, I am creating a visual language of intimacy and emotional labour, one that invites softness while acknowledging rupture.

As the title suggests, me, you, us speaks to an interconnectedness — the blurred lines between self and other, the tensions and affections that define family, and the journey toward reconnection.

"To unravel a torment you must begin somewhere."
This is where I begin.

2023 Michaelis Graduate body of work and exhibition.