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Where She Slept
Installation
This work explores the mystery surrounding my great-grandmother, the late Leah Jane Davies. She was one of the 10,000 children, known as Canada's Home Children, Britain exported to Canada to serve as free or cheap farm labor. Through this work I have researched the life of Leah Jane Davies, finding out about her family in England and the homes in which she stayed while in Nova Scotia. This research has led me to the creation of a series of installation pieces funded by the Canada Council. I have depicted my great-grandmother's life in four stages. Four metal beds represent these four stages. These beds each have a grid of metal strips, which suggests a mattress. Fabric pieces, which contain an enlarged iron-on from the four different stages of her life, have been cut out and tied to the squares of the metal grid. There is also a sound component to this piece. These stages reflect what I thought was imperative when suggesting my great-grandmother's life.