Memory is the ability to remember things, places, and experiences. It’s the way we know if a certain event has occurred in our lives. We are born, we grow up, we grow older. Life goes on but the memories remain. My work is about the recreation of a certain memory, the house I grew up in. It holds positive, negative, and mundane memories of my childhood. I decided to only rely on my memory to recreate my childhood house and it ended up being one of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on.

          My work includes the exact model of the house I grew up in. There are seven rooms: two kids’ rooms, parents’ rooms, kitchen, bathroom, guest room, and living room. The house model is 35 inches long and 5.5 inches tall and 18 inches wide. Each room has its own furniture and household appliances that are needed for everyday life. The viewer can physically open and close the entrance and the windows in each room.

            I used 40-inch plywood and used a mechanical saw to cut into smaller pieces. After getting the measurements and cutting the right number of pieces of wood it was time to put everything together. I used small brackets and screws to hold everything. For the walls, I used colored wallpaper. I don’t have an exact memory of the color of the walls, so I decided to use different colored wallpaper to create that magical world of a child. The exterior of the house was made of brick walls, so I printed photos of the brick wall and glued them to the wood. I was lucky enough to find furniture that came with instructions the whole process was fun and enjoyable. I brought a garden ornament that closely resembled the one at my house. After getting all the furniture the last step was to put everything where it needed to be finalized.

            We all remember being a child. Even though childhood flies by very quickly it stays in our memory as a bright, cheerful, and unforgettable time. The older we get, it feels like time speeds up, we get caught up in our daily lives, and sometimes as adults forget to take time for ourselves and just be. With my work, I’m hoping to connect to people and even for a moment bring that childhood freedom where there were no problems and worries and maybe remind them of some kind of lost forgotten memory that takes them back to that period in people’s life.