Who am I — if not the outcome of my life experiences?
I came to the ‘here and now’ along a particular path, meeting particular people, being loved by some, threatened by others, witnessing particular events at particular times, doing much with my body~heart~mind. Through it all, I sensed, felt, thought, (re)acted: becoming my self by experiencing. Since my first emergence (ie. my birth), I am and have been — both passively and actively — shaped and forming my sense of self with elements from various moments of my existence.
From each encounter — a stitch or a knot, layered into the fabric of my existence. I suspect that human beings are more than the sum of their encounters and more than the relationships they maintain with each others. Yet, we are that too: our lives entangled into time and space.
This artwork shows who I am from the perspective of my past — each knot (re)presenting a formative moment in my becoming ‘V’. When I made this piece in October 2021, I looked into my self from the vantage point of ‘now’ and interpreted what mattered from my past. I wanted to be transparent about my ups and downs, my ordeals, even my rebirth.
Each knot says: “something happened to me” or “I did something” that turned out to be constitutive, transformative, leaving indelible traces in my consciousness.
I chose a non-declarative language — colours. I invented a colour-scheme to express the multiple dimensions of a human life, ranging from physical (matter) to spiritual (ideas and ideals). I choose 11 dimensions. This colour-coding is a convention, not a universal truth. Yet, it’s helped me honour the complexity of my self — thus it has already been a useful interpretative tool.
This artwork was made in paracord, on a wood frame. Its size is 68 cm [26-3/4”] wide, 45 cm [18”] high and 6 cm [2.25”] deep. Paracord is a strong nylon rope, itself composed of many strands. The background is also paracord, twisted and sewn at yearly intervals. It is open-ended, as the future is un-woven…
Véronique Rousseau 
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