"There are a handful of objects that I lost as a child, things that held deep meaning to me and that I've mourned ever since - not in an active, heavy-hearted way, but I've always recognized these objects as representing key moments from my childhood. Maybe their loss makes them even more significant.These lost things have been a decades-long secret obsession of mine, and all I have left is my memory. My very unreliable memory."
Shira's professional practice is storytelling and her mother's passion is pottery, two of the world's oldest art forms. All The Things I've Lost uses these art forms to reinvent, recreate and honour lost childhood objects. During each performance Shira tells her mother about these prized items, and her mother tries to recreate them in clay, to make permanent what long ago disappeared and what continues to disappear and change in our memories.
The desire to materialize these objects also stems from changing intergenerational relationships: Shira's young daughter likely won't retain any of the memories she's made so far. Her maternal grandmother is suffering with Alzheimer's. Shira and her mother work together to reclaim the memories they have both lived, and to explore the vast gulf between the moments that the parent and the child share.
