With What We Could Carry, With What We Leave Behind

This multi-year project began with a simple gesture as part of a socially engaged residency in Yerevan, Armenia. Young connected with Armenian artists and feminist groups through one-on-one interviews and casual conversations. The project title and text emerged from those exchanges by asking what responsibilities we embrace, and what we shed as we travel across borders and through time.

Working with curator Eva Khachatryan, designer Aasawari Kulkarni, Suburb Platform, Visual Gap Gallery, FemLibrary Armenia, and CEC Arts Link, Young produced a series of screen printed cotton and linen textiles. The multiples were distributed to collaborators who utilized the pieces as banners, adornment, wrapping, and utilitarian pouches. Participants contributed to the ongoing dialogue around matriarchy, migration, and the dreams of our elders.