Silence in Two Rooms

The project grows out of watching my grandmother live with Alzheimer’s — the first time I encountered otherness tied to a mental condition, a confrontation with the Other. Conversation with her became a site of that otherness. Opaque, unreadable affects broke through the surface of her psyche, and a familiar person became unrecognisable. Her responses to the world turned unpredictable; ordinary domestic contact took unexpected forms.

The ethics Emmanuel Levinas describes in relation to the Othe…