YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 2

YAYA BOX HISTORY CHAPTER 2

II. The Gathering 

A week after I explained the project to my Art History professor, she said the box process was the last thing on her mind at night and the first thing on her mind in the morning.  

I was thrilled by the enthusiasm of the women involved. G was already searching for a box before I had even finished explaining the idea. Each woman I called reacted similarly — their minds were already racing ahead, imagining possibilities.

Y immediately knew she would paint the inside of her box. Of course — she is a painter. S told me she had been doing extensive dream work, and that the project “boggled” her mind. She said she would need to write about it. M had ideas swirling before we had even finished our conversation.

J, however, struggled. She insisted she had nothing positive to put on her box. She said that for every good thing, she had more sad things. She imagined her box as exceedingly small, enclosed inside a large black box. My only parameters were that the box should not be precious in scale — not something held in the hands or lap — and that it must have a lid. I wondered whether her ongoing therapeutic work made this process feel overwhelming.