Balloon Memory

Balloon Memory explores dissociation as a protective response—the mind’s quiet erasure in the aftermath of trauma. In contrast to the idea of “elephant memory,” the balloon becomes a fragile vessel: capable of holding, but never meant to carry everything. As pressure builds, memory thins, distorts, or disappears altogether. The act of rupture represents release—what the body chooses to let go of in order to survive. Through softness and rupture, the work reflects how trauma reshapes remembrance, leaving behind absence, weightlessness, and the traces of what once was.

b.2024

Watercolor, acrylic, moss

48×60

"Trauma will make you forget shit"