Lanternhouse

About this work

Lanternhouse: No place like Home, is a reconstructed village of huts made from my diary images printed in an indigo tint on Kozo paper, illuminated with LED lights that can be configured based upon the space. The work, an installation and a performance, revolves around an abstraction of my memories from my time serving in the Philippines as a volunteer, creates an environment around cultural exchange and cultural collision, PTSD, trauma and recovery. In the Philippines, I became a member of the Tilos family. They helped me build a bamboo hut on a beach in which I lived for two years without running water or electricity. I saw this family suffer from politics of a volatile country going through civil unrest. This piece represents a revisiting of this time and has allowed me to reconnect more with the joy of this painful, life altering, intense experience.