Uncontainable Memory
Min Guan
Uncontainable Memory is a study on how the association between human and their belongings adds on to their perception of past memories regarding home, aiming to reconnect the audiences with their non-concrete memories about home in New York City. This project is a collection of graphic gestures, images, illustrations, and text that express remembrance, experiences, and sense of belonging.
New York is a vast and vibrant city, brimming with infinite possibilities and changing uncertainties, but for me, it has been a place of transience. Over the past few years, I have moved around in the city frequently, trying to settle down and catch a breath for a while. As I packed my cardboard boxes for the fifth time this summer, I started to think about what moving and home means to me. For me, a house is more than just a place to live—it's a container filled with scattered memories from the past. These memories have overflowed into the small space I rented, and sometimes my room cannot contain them, nor can I. What I can take with me are my belongings, but the extra memories remain there vaguely, or perhaps part of them come along with me, wrapped around me like multiple layers of glassine paper. These intimate memories sometimes resurface in my mind and sometimes fade away, but they do always exist.