Safe Haven

Salvaged barn wood (yellow pine and chestnut) and piano keys · 96"h x 12"w x 112” · 2010 | Future Tenant Gallery, Pittsburgh PA

“Safe Haven” utilizes materials and objects recovered from a collapsed 1890’s barn located in Eighty-Four, PA. The barn, a place of my past, where I escaped to and received respite from the chaos and instability of my home environment. Within the barn, an upright piano stood unprotected from under a leaky roof. The decades-long decline and the eventual collapse of the barn, along with the flattening of the upright piano, mirrored my experience with the deterioration of my mother’s mental health during her lifelong battle with Major Depression.