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Youth’s Inheritance: What Remains
Youth’s Inheritance: What Remains
Medium - Acrylic, laser-cut wood, gold zari thread, and pearls on heat-distressed industrial house wrap
Dimensions - 8.5 FT X 4 FT
Description of Artwork:
An adolescent elephant stands between two worlds. He is no longer held close by the herd, but he is not yet fully grown. He is still learning the landscape, and it is changing under his feet.
Youth's Inheritance takes the form of a receding glacier. Like a glacier, the surface is layered, worn, and thinning at its edges, with each season's loss still visible. Pearls gather like meltwater, zari thread catches light like ice, and wooden butterflies rest on the surface, delicate and in motion. I used industrial material made to protect man-made structures from wind and weather–then put it through a series of situations that an elephant would face in its lifetime. It was exposed to sun, pressure, water, freezing, and scarring. And each time a layer of paint was added to mark time and weathering. The end result was something meant to protect human habitat becoming an offering to protect animal habitat as an acknowledgement of our shared coexistence.
The piece begins with an industrial material made to shield buildings from wind and weather. I put it through conditions an elephant might face in a lifetime: sun, pressure, water, freezing, and scarring. After each one, I added a layer of paint to mark the passing of time. A material meant to only protect human habitat becomes an offering toward animal habitat, and an acknowledgement of our shared coexistence.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
Youth's Inheritance imagines a young elephant, no longer held close by the herd and not yet fully grown, coming of age in a landscape that is changing beneath him. I wanted to make a body covering that reads as a receding glacier, and as a reminder of the world our young will inherit from us, with all its beauty and its challenges.
I chose the hardy, weatherproof industrial material used to protect houses during construction. Eventually it ends up in landfills, where it pollutes the environment and turns protection into harm. My intent was to transform it into the glacier itself. I subjected it to pressure, erosion, sunlight, and heat, then layered and painted it with acrylic until it looked worn, thin, and luminous, the way ice looks as it gives way.
The zari thread comes from the embroidery traditions I grew up around, where metallic thread marks what is precious and meant to be passed down. Stitching it into a melting glacier felt right, since an inheritance is only worth something if there is still something to inherit. The pearls form slowly, layer by layer, and the butterflies are fragile and quick to respond to a changing climate. Both are small and easy to overlook, and I wanted them to carry weight here.
I made this for the young because they are the ones who will live longest with the consequences of our collective actions today. The piece is not a verdict or a warning. It is an invitation to look closely at our world, our choices, and our actions, and to keep our youth in mind as we make them.
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