03 / 09
Maybe Next Year
Perhaps we need festivals because returning, seeing the same people, and exchanging familiar words help us keep belonging to one another.
When I was a child, I thought Chinese New Year was all about food. Only later did I realize that what mattered most was the expectation that everyone would come home. Every year, someone would say, “I’m too busy to make it back. Maybe next year.” Yet the elders cared less about how much we had earned than whether a seat at the table would be empty.
Making
I cut five traditional window decorations from Chinese calendar pages and collaged them into one work. Zodiac animals and festive scenes overlap with printed dates, bringing the passing of time into familiar New Year imagery. The calendar marks days moving forward; the decorations recall rituals we return to each year.
Documentation
The question
Through these materials, I consider how family connections are sustained through repetition. Perhaps we need festivals because returning, seeing the same people, and exchanging familiar words help us keep belonging to one another.