Qui se souviendra de moi

“Qui se souviendra de moi?” or “Who will remember me?” comes from a sentence retrieved
from a box of letters which were written by a French woman living in French Indochina
between 1920 and 1929. She was the wife of Jean Rigal, a colonial engineer. The letters
were addressed to her young children, who had remained in France. The letters reveal an
account of separation, cultural difference and homesickness. Her letters are detailed, yet
sometimes almost mechanical. She asks about her children—their health, their progress,
shared memories, but reveals little about her own life. Behind these innocuous sentences
lies a deep loneliness, a weariness, a kind of resigned acceptance of her fate as "Jean
Rigal's wife," defined by her social position, by her role as a mother, a woman responsible for
maintaining a semblance of normality in a profoundly foreign environment. Rewriting the
letters of Helen onto fragile gauze, evokes the voice of a woman who has long been
displaced—both geographically and emotionally. The fragility of the textile reveals the fragility
of memory. Some words are apparent, others lost in the folds and tensions, just like
memories that become distorted and fade away. The work is a testament of remembrance of
those who came before us, a witnessing of the lives of those whose stories remain untold.
This piece is part of a series on gauze and paper.