1998 3 pieces, 24"x 21.5"x 5' Etched glass, steel
For some time I have been interested in the fact that most French colloquial expressions are connected to food; and food, feeding, nurturing is always at the core of my work. In this piece I want to express what it feels like to be an "alien", to live as an expatriate and know that one never quite belongs. In French, the colloquial expression used to describe this feeling is: "Se sentir comme un cheveu sur la soupe" (To feel like a hair on the soup), which translates into colloquial English as: To feel like a fish out of water. So, following the thread, I conceived the piece as a triptych (for my two sisters and I who moved to the States). Fish Out of Water speaks of nature, or one's nature, forced into a foreign and sometimes unyielding environment where preserving one's essence becomes a permanent struggle.