Ancestral Drift
Ancestral Drift
Tiki Mulvihill, Ancestral Drift, Installations in different galleries
Ancestral Drift
My mother’s lineage spawned from British Isles, my father’s from around the Baltic Sea. Ancestors set off within a wave of emigration triggered by economic hardships, evictions and religious persecutions for a new life across the ocean. They drifted into Canada through a current of air or water, with desire for land. Over years they aligned within the cultural mish-mash of Canadians through a gradual shift in attitude, opinion, or position. Our ancestral knowledge limits... derived solely from tales and objects of the past; stories, tools, machinery, household items and attire; once used to smooth life.
Within Ancestral Drift, I implement hierarchy objects and repurposed components from all sorts of tools and items once owned by my parents. Some objects retained within our ancestral families for several generations. These components encase in driftwood and mix with other unrelated components to evoke some inquisitiveness about users and usage. Ancestral drift combinations infuses past within present through places, people and objects situated within the cross-cultural perspective lens, which strangely defines Canada. Ancestral drift intends to trigger your own interpretation and understanding of ancestral history.
Ancestors ...
Some examples from the installation
Some close-up details of objects mounted and combined on Drift wood