The Weight She Carried is a temporary art installation located at the Association for Visual Arts in Chattanooga, TN January – February 2026

We all inherit something from our families—objects, traditions, expectations, or silences. For Nicci, it has been the weight of family archives and mementos: photographs, genealogies, domestic items and the unspoken responsibility of being the keeper of family history. At times this role has left her feeling unseen, struggling between the weight of expectations and carrying the stories of others while being a mother trying to make sure her own story, or those of her children, are not forgotten.

Evolving from the concept of Family Laundry into The Weight She Carried, this is an installation that focuses on memory, lineage, loss and resilience. Two sets of images are used to provide a multi layered effect echoing family trees and the ways histories are preserved, frayed, or forgotten over time.

 The installation plays with how family histories are revealed, preserved, or hidden. Draped image fragments resemble worn fabrics, making memory both tactile and ordinary, while nodding to women’s domestic labor that often remains an invisible, and yet integral part of our lives.

 The first set of images focuses on Nicci’s matrilineal ancestors. These images are adhered to circles created from collage papers. The collage papers were created using copies of family bible papers and archive papers, paper napkins found in boxes from Nicci’s mother, sewing patterns from her great grandmother and pages of her own children’s homework they felt no longer served a purpose.

 The photo-disks suspended with threads, are worked into a pattern that is reminiscent of quilt so worn that it is only held together with fragmented memories and thread. This imagery also brings forth an idea of a family tree created from memories.

 The second set of vintage family photographs, or rather image fragments, were printed onto rice paper that was treated and manipulated to look like cloth. Nicci created two panels for the window display using both a sewing machine and hand stitching. One panel, with linen and faded blue tones, faces the street, while the other faces the gallery audience. These panels are separated by a length of cheese cloth with raw edges. This separation by cloth is meant to tie all three sections of the center in the viewers eye as fragile and delicate cloth.

The center section echoes the idea of a quilt with its raw edges and over lapping images bond together with threads. This section represents how memories evolve, and fade with the most important parts standing out in our mind from the fragment of a story or letter to the hands that cared for us of the eyes we stared into so often. The panels and fabric are suspended over an old fashioned drying rack to draw a link between the women who shaped out lives and the invisible work of domesticity.

This installation is a way of honoring the overlooked labor and quiet histories that shape who we are. By suspending these fragile family images in public view, the installation asks viewers to reflect on the weight of the stories they carry, the ones they preserve, and the ones at risk of being lost.

Creating The Weight She Carried has allowed me to transform my own personal burden of inherited objects, histories and traditions into a shared space. By bringing these images into public view, the weight is lifted from my shoulders and offered to the community, where memory can be held collectively rather than privately.