“Saying ‘I love you’ to our parents can often feel like the hardest thing to do. Within families, love is rarely simple; it’s woven through gestures both gentle and strained, through shared histories and sometimes long silences. We may carry unresolved tensions, misunderstandings, or regrets, yet deep down, the bond remains. A single photo or video can stir the desire to reconnect, but expressing those feelings, especially to those closest to us, can feel awkward, even impossible.

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These moments are interwoven with intimate, sometimes difficult conversations: ‘What does love mean in our family?’, ‘What do you wish you had said or done differently?’ In this work, my parents have the agency in memorializing their being, shaping their digital selves through chosen postures, colors, and emotional truths.

In an era dominated by artificial intelligence and algorithmic memory, where technology can fabricate familial memories from static images, ‘The Roots You Gave Me, the Wings I’ve Found’ serves as a gentle act of reclaiming authorship. Rather than allowing machines to dictate how we remember our loved ones, this work invites us to co-create, to preserve presence with intention, and to hold space for authenticity in the face of rapid digital evolution.

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At its heart, ‘The Roots You Gave Me, the Wings I’ve Found’ is not just an exhibition—it is an invitation to reflect on how we communicate with our loved ones and to question how technology is shaping our memories. Most importantly, it asks us to rediscover what it means to say, however we can, ‘I love you.’”