The Weight of What We Carry is a growing participatory sculpture that transforms a heavy metallic chain — traditionally a symbol of oppression, bondage, and unfreedom — into a living monument of release, memory, and collective transformation. This work only comes into being through the direct engagement of the public. Without participation, the sculpture remains dormant; it is the act of contribution that completes and activates the piece.

At the heart of the work lies a simple ritual: each participant is invited to take a red ribbon — a strip of soft fabric symbolizing the intensity of emotion, the flow of life, and the potential for healing — and inscribe upon it a word, phrase, or symbol representing something they wish to release. This may be a fear, a belief, a trauma, a memory, or an internalized role. The ribbon is then tied onto the chain, layering it with personal expressions of letting go. As more and more people participate, the cold, metallic object becomes softened, obscured, even transformed into something organic — almost vegetal, almost corporeal — like a vine overtaking a fence or a tangled braid of stories.

Over time, the chain becomes heavier not just with mass, but with meaning. It no longer functions as a symbol of captivity but is resignified through the accumulation of intimate gestures. The process of writing and tying becomes a ritual of agency, a secular prayer, or a whispered declaration of freedom. Inspired by global traditions such as wish trees in Japan and Turkey, love-lock bridges, and religious acts of penitence or devotion, The Weight of What We Carry invites reflection on what we inherit, what we choose to hold, and what we are ready to release.

The artwork is mutable and site-responsive. It can be installed vertically like a suspended spine, looped along a wall like barbed wire, coiled like a serpent on the ground, or encased in glass like a relic — each display inviting new interpretations of weight, power, and vulnerability.

According to certain Buddhist folk beliefs, when fabric is tied to a tree and the wind touches it, the message carried within is whispered into the world — a reminder to never forget what we have decided to release. The Weight of What We Carry carries that same intention: to make space for release, to materialize unseen burdens, and to remind us that meaning and healing are not solitary acts, but shared, evolving, and profoundly collective.