For you, Towards you

You Hold Stars is part of my thesis project For you, Towards You: Video and photo  documentation of my youngest sister while she recovered from surgery to remove a brain tumor throughout her senior year of high school.

Experiential video accompanied photos and writing in various gallery settings. 

New developments have forced her
to race against time, while for the past
year and a half she has been working so hard to pass it.

Ever-flowing time froze in an instant.
Only in great surprise does it slow, turning
inward, surrounding; hugging its attention
onto one moment, her moment.
Time hugged her, squeezed her uncomfortably tight,
as it wrapped its arms
coldly around her.

Any present thoughts of past and future
fell suddenly away, and all she saw was time.

It weighed on her, pushing her backwards and swallowing her whole. When she could use sleep no longer, she began to emerge from the depths, and fight back against its inescapable pull.

She held stars.
Even after they tried
to remove them entirely,
a small number of them stayed,
yet she struggled against them
determined to shine.

Fighting, pushing back; again, and again.
Motions more fluid each time.

Astrocytoma: benign tumor growth that develops from star-shaped glial cells called astrocytes, part of the supportive tissue of the brain. They occur most commonly in the cerebellum where balance and coordination operate.

For You, Towards You
Project Description

For you, towards you (Part I & Part II) conveys the separation I felt from my sister while she was in recovery. Displayed on opposite facing walls, two figures appear out of the water, swim towards each other, and then are pulled backwards in an endless loop.

For you, Towards you was shown with sound through headphones in a curated exhibition of multimedia artwork.

For you, Towards you, Part I

For you, Towards you, Part II

She swam towards you, towards me;
I towards you, towards her.
Our pools enveloped
a space, now ours.
Yet apart we remained.

After each pass over
and under the surface,
back and forth, to and from,
she emerged a newer, stronger being
from its body.  The water took from her
what she gained from it:
tranquility and peace.

Afterwards, both were still.

Human beings were invented by water as
a device for transporting itself from one
place to another.
- Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

Dear Christina is a longer documentary style cut with voice-over showing Christina’s time after release from the hospital. 

This video was shown in a private setting in a curated exhibition of multimedia artwork.