Healing (2010)
In Healing, I placed 1,000 white origami paper cranes in front of a video of me walking down a hallway and wrapping the cranes around myself, symbolizing the journey of mourning and healing after death. In Japan, the making of the cranes symbolizes the path and journey of healing. The folding of the cranes can take a very long time to accomplish, in my case, three months. The time frame of their making allows for reflection on life and meditation through constant repetition of action. At the end of the process it is believed that the maker of the cranes is not bodily healed, but his soul is more at peace and more prepared to accept his fate.
I began the cranes on January 14th 2010, two days after the earthquake in Haiti. Being of Haitian descent, I was sorrowful for Haiti and my family, and full of anger, because I felt I could do nothing to help. The making of the cranes served as meditation; a form of penance and healing for my soul. It also served as a tribute to the people of Haiti, a wish for peace and healing to begin in the country. Through the use of the Japanese tradition in combination with my own experiences I conveyed the universality of the process of mourning and healing.
