Secrets and Lies
We move
We take hold

Secrets and Lies
We stay
We whisper
We live on

Secrets and Lies
We are in the walls
We are the unspoken voices

Secrets and Lies
We are the past
We live on
In the now

We move on and on

This piece of work is once again inspired by Bert Hellinger's Family Constellations work, revealing the effect that past secrets have on current and future generations. In this work we learn that everything that is suppressed in the family does not dissolve into thin air, but rather floats around within the family system. In consequence the newer family members, namely the children, feel this energy, receive it and live it out.

In this piece of work I am using cakes/parcels as a metaphor for family secrets that we are asked to swallow in order to remain members of that particular tribe (family).

Made from ceramic and material they are clearly inedible just like family secrets these little cakes can never be digested.

I have printed onto various fabrics family images , notes, letters parts of the book,
all of which I obtained in a small brown suitcase in a junk shop.

The identity of all the people is a secret to me. I have stitched the printed images into
the cushion and the lamp and printed them onto the wallpaper. Here I am using the
metaphor to convey that they are secretly living in the walls, in the furniture and as long
as they remain hidden they powerfully stay all around subsequent generations, often
causing chaos.