Hope & Expectations (2022)

The inside cover is collaged with a closeup photo of a potted flower sitting in front of a living room window. Affixed atop this photo are two fabric pockets with a floral pattern on a light blue background. Inside each pocket is a tile with a blue ribbon pull loop. Each tile is collaged with an etched illustration on the front and a word list snippet from an English primer on the reverse side. A companion to the tiles, in each pocket, is a card from a word game, each with a cropped panel from a comic book on the back. The frame of the box is covered with a dark blue fabric with an amorphous stripe up the sides. The top section of the box has four thin vials sitting on a green glass shelf. Each vial contains a different color of metallic dry pigment and is sealed with gold foil. The background of this section is a curved panel with an etching of a public fountain depicting The Car of Neptune, from Roman mythology. On the top panel of the box is a short nursery rhyme. The back of the bottom section, below the green shelf, is an illustration of the Breslau prison. This compartment contains a toy metal hot-rod car, a plastic toy headless torso with arms, and another vial of metallic pigment. Fronting this section to both sides are panels of a color photo of wheat growing against a partially cloudy sky. In front of each of these panels are two word-tiles, one saying “a” and the other “bird.”