I Was Here

Against the solid, stable forms of the physical landscapes around us—horizon lines of mountains, hills and plains, seascapes and coastlines—the millennia of life and centuries of human activity drift past like a long succession of clouds.

And even the geology of the world doesn’t hold still, though its constant change is at yawning scales of time and magnitude that are hard to fathom.

How, I wondered, could I model the ephemeral nature of existence and at the same time recognize, even commemorate, the mighty bit-part that every life plays in the passage of time? So began the idea of I Was Here.

In this project (undertaken so far over three different time periods in three countries), I create a large gauzy, hand-stitched “timepiece,” literally marking out the weeks or months I spend in a set geographical location. In parallel with the ongoing stitching, I take the piece—a stand-in for my presence—into the local surroundings. I photograph it interacting with all the previous markers of time, from geology and human history to the seasonal changes in the environment.

Out in the world, each thin, barely-there timepiece engages with the moment, the place and, I like to think, all the absent presences occupying the particular location. Sometimes it’s wild and energetically alive. Other times it simply relaxes into the moment, serene in its place on the stage.