Will you come to Rome with me?

‘Will you come to Rome with me?’  explores memories of my mother through family portraits and places in film/slides and texts from my journals.

Memories are weaved together like sarees that my mother used to drape in. I am looking back on memories that were dear to my mother and those that I grew up with. Memories that stayed in my dreams and consciousness, and those that almost faded. Every few years my mother seemed to shed her old self to new roles but, essence of her never changed.

I look for the passage of time belonged to us, sense of her and the invisible bond connecting me with her. It is a dialogue of a trip to Rome together; a journey that we never took. But it is a story of her presence in me and me in her. Wherever I can be, she can be in me and I in her.

I had been journaling on this project since 2009 - bits and pieces here and there, and gathering photos as well.  The workshop by Yumi Goto (Reminder Photography Stronghold) inspired me to face this very personal journey of mine and make possible the artist book form.