In our increasingly isolated and digital society, we are often forced to struggle with our personal problems silently due to a lack of a community to help us deal with them. I wondered how I could create a different world temporarily, in which people felt free to reveal their struggles and others eagerly picked up the slack for them.
To create this temporary world, I asked the people in my life if they would be willing to share a problem or “burden” they were carrying with me. I printed all of the responses I was cleared to share on tote bags and bandanas (two items that you might literally carry with you), as well as on tabloid-sized posters. I combined all of these elements into an installation, and asked visitors to take one piece of it with them as they left. These carry-able souvenirs are both symbolic and literal reminders of the meaningfulness of carrying someone else’s burden, and how others’ problems often feel more manageable than our own.