heritage
alive
heritage is created not discovered
it is created by relations and through relations
and it starts between people
then gets moulded by time
we think of our heritage when we experience loss
but we can create heritage consciously
when we can impact the relationships
which are still alive
find yourself in your past
in your land that still stands firm
in your people who are still alive
The key to the good mental health is self-acceptance. The digestion of ultimate truth about us, with all the good and bad.
Jung said ‘Conflicts create the fire of affects and emotions; and like every fire it has two aspects: that of burning and that of giving light (…) The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm which is not easily disturbed, or else a brokenness that can hardly be healed. Conversely, it is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed in order to produce valuable and lasting results’ (‘The structure and dynamics of the psyche’).
One of the hardest truths to accept are the things that shape us but lay beyond our control. The inherited physical flaws and parts of our characters, things carried in our DNA. The things we have grown up with, pinned to our backs by our parents and others. For many, when looking inwards, the weight of the unwanted luggage is crushing and we forget that beauty in us, to a certain extent, is also inherited. The shape of our favourite body parts, the talents, some of our personality traits.
The truth about ourselves is a mixed bag, it is the Jungan conflict. I'm showing three generation of women - myself, my mother and my grandmother. All of us still alive, us still very emotionally close to each other, each one of us in sort of a conflict with the other. I bring women in a wholesome portrait that opens a question of the nature of beauty and resemblance.