My grief has always been accompanied by objects and moments that I’ve latched onto. This diptych divides the two sides of my experience with grief, while confronting my intuition surrounding the death of my parents. Before their passing, I found myself (at 11 years old) documenting mundane things such as forcing them to sign their signatures for whatever reason, making them record me on my birthday, and just snapping photos of my parents in their everyday routines. As silly as I seemed then, it was almost like I was preparing myself to grieve them. I unknowingly gave myself such irreplaceable keepsakes. The second panel reflects the aftermath of their passing, incorporating excerpts of letters my dad’s coworkers wrote to my sister and me, alongside imagery from the funeral and its surrounding moments.

When opening the little envelope on the left panel, it’ll play the audio of my parents singing me happy birthday on my last birthday spent with them. (Which I made them record on my iPod).

Overall, I just wanted to convey my experiences with objects and how they relate to my journey with grief.