Give-away Project IV returned to the original intention of the Give-away Project: to investigate people’s personal connections to objects. Objects represent personal choices, and mirror and portray aspects of our personalities. Our sharing of connections to the same objects reveals deep ways we overlap below the surface of the visible.

With that in mind, I repeated the gesture from Give-away Project I: I invited people to my studio, filled with objects, and requested that they take something home. Unlike Give-away Project I, in this case all of the objects were very personal to me. They included items deeply connected to my family and my life, and were difficult to let go of. However, fundamental to this iteration of Give-away Project was my commitment to surrendering my attachment to objects and images.

I believe that by freeing ourselves of our attachments to the material world, we begin loosening our grip on deeper emotional attachments. By confronting our attachments, we confront our fears, such as the fear of death, an event we can’t escape. By inviting people to choose objects that belonged to members of my family and me, I create connectivity between lives. Objects embody memories, and by sharing them we can channel the effects of our actions on the lives of others, which keeps a part of us alive.