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Raising Your Spirited Family An Artist’s Statement by Sonia J. Lessuck

Raising Your Spirited Family An Artist’s Statement by Sonia J. Lessuck

This project began with a collection of stories.

I was an only child of many questions, who loved stories, so my mother would tell me about growing up with her three sisters. Through her stories, I began to piece together a familial history.

As I got older and began to form individual relationships with the characters in my mother’s stories—my aunts and grandparents—something didn’t fit. The stories were lighthearted and funny; my relationships, however, seemed tense and uncomfortable.

Shaded by my own experience, I began to interpret new meaning in the stories. As I began to seek explanations, my parents included me in the reality of our complicated family dynamics. With new information I became more aware of the disparity between my mother’s memories, our family’s collective memory, and my own relationships.

This project places my mother’s stories in conversation with my own evolving understanding and interpretation of family. Many of my mother’s memories revolve around her family’s dining room table. I’ve used the presence of this table to inform my study of cinematic storytelling as a method of revealing family secrets and stories.

The Haggadahs on the table each hold an excerpt from a feature-length screenplay about a fictionalized version of my family. Above each Haggadah is a monitor, which plays the original story on which the scene in the screenplay is based. Taken together, the relationship between my mother’s memories and my experience of her memories becomes clear, revealed most saliently by the work of fiction.

On the walls of the gallery hang photographs moving in chronological order from my mother’s childhood to my own. Some photographs hang completely intact, while others have figures missing. The missing figures symbolize the gaps between the remembered and forgotten, revealed and suppressed details of my mother’s stories, as well as the family members who have been included or erased in the process of storytelling.

In creating this work, I drew inspiration from feminist video artist Martha Rolser, Judy Chicago’s installation artwork The Dinner Party, and surrealist artist René Magritte’s work dealing with images as representations.

This work is not intended as a reconstruction of a family home so much as a silhouette of the domestic setting within which family history takes place. I hope this piece invites visitors to explore and experience the ways in which this history, along with its recounting through shared memories, shapes personal identity. 

6 months ago 

Raising Your Spirited Family, a video art piece by Sonia J. Lessuck

6 months ago  1 note

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

Understanding Marriage

9 months ago 

Understanding Marriage Haggadah

Just as the Haggadah at a Passover Seder is a means of understanding individual and collective history, so is this installation.

 

The act of reading the Haggadah helps illuminate historical events through textual analysis, personal interpretations, and shared insights.

 

At this table you are invited to experience my familial history through personal memory work, a fictionalization of those memories, and finally your own interpretation of the relationship between the two.

 

The following passage from my feature-length screenplay, Raising Your Spirited Family, is a fictional interpretation of the story told by my mother on the monitor before you.

INT. ADLER KITCHEN.

 

Miriam stands at the center of the women facing Frances, her chest rising and falling in sweeping breaths of intensity.

 

No response. Jamie turns her head briskly looking to Frances, Moriah, and her mother. She looks shocked.

 

JAMIE

Grandma sent everyone to see Zayde on his 40th birthday when he was drunk and puking.

 

Gasps.

 

Jamie exhales a breath of relief.

 

Frances looks at Jamie confused and then to her daughters.

 

FRANCES

You all have no idea do you?

 

Moriah and Megan stare frozen and shocked.

 

Frances walks to a cupboard. She pulls out five tumblers and pulls a bottle of vodka from the freezer. She places the glasses on the table and motions for the women to join her, they oblige.

 

FRANCES

Pour.

 

Nobody moves at first. Frances rubs her forehead, the four women stare at her confused. Moriah nudges Megan and gestures at the bottle of vodka.

 

Megan shaking her head and rolling her eyes opens the bottle and pours five glasses. Frances takes a large sip. Megan, Moriah and Miriam take sips, Jamie holds the glass up to her face, takes a whiff, holds her nose, and sips.

 

FRANCES

You know your father didn’t want me to have you, don’t you?

 

Everyone looks confused.

 

Miriam, Moriah and Megan all point to themselves questioning.

 

Frances takes a sip and wags her finger at Miriam.

 

FRANCES

You my sweet. He thought three was too many.

 

Miriam’s jaw drops and she begins to sob uncontrollably.

 

Jamie and Megan look at Frances disgusted. Moriah looks at Miriam in anguish.

 

MEGAN

What is wrong with you?

 

Jamie nods in agreement, Miriam sobs louder, Moriah continues to look at Miriam from across the table in pain.

 

MORIAH

Help her!

 

Jamie looks surprised and throws her arms around Miriam, who slowly begins to regain her breath.

 

FRANCES

When I got pregnant he suggested I you know…

 

MEGAN

Get an abortion?

 

FRANCES

Take care of it. But I refused. So I tried very hard to protect you.

 

Frances reaches to rub Miriam’s arm. Jamie pulls Miriam closer out of Frances’ reach then reaches for her glass and takes a swig, this time without holding her nose.

 

Everyone stares at Frances.

 

FRANCES

There’s a lot that goes on in a marriage that no one else gets to see. Yes, maybe your father wasn’t always around, actually and emotionally. But surely I was. And I did my best.

 

Frances places her hand on Megan’s.

 

FRANCES

Perhaps not equally with all of you. But I tried.

 

Megan looks at her mother’s hand disgusted.

 

FRANCES

Shortly before that evening…

 

INT. ADLER BEDROOM. – 1973.

 

Frances and Richard stand in their bedroom yelling at one another. Frances storms around the room throwing jewelry and picture frames at him. He covers himself in protection and shame.

 

FRANCES

What! What does she give you? What could she possibly give you? She’s not your family!

 

RICHARD

EXACTLY! That’s exactly it! I’m about to be 40…is this really all I have to show for it! A wife? Three daughters? What have I done that’s extraordinary? I’m a doctor for god sake Frances!

 

Frances shakes her head and sobs, she clenches her fists.

 

FRANCES

We loved you.

 

RICHARD

She thinks I’m incredible, she asks me to teach her things.

 

Frances screams and grabs a clock to throw at him.

 

FRANCES

TEACH HER THINGS…TEACH HER THINGS! I’M SURE SHE DOES! GET OUT, just GET OUT!

 

RICHARD

ME! ME! I’m not welcome in this home now? I PAY FOR THIS HOME!

 

Richard picks up a necklace from the floor.

 

RICHARD

I pay for these things…YOUR THINGS!

 

FRANCES

I have money of my own!

 

RICHARD

Your family’s money…that’s done nothing for us! You can’t leave me! What will people think? How will it look. Why can’t you think about the girls!

 

Frances takes a bellowing and angry gasp.

 

FRANCES

The girls. THE GIRLS! All I do is think about the girls! You can’t think about them long enough to KEEP YOUR PANTS ZIPPED!

 

Frances stares at her husband tears streaming down her face.

 

INT. ADLER KITCHEN.

 

Frances stares, tears streaming down her face. She lifts her glass to take a sip but its empty. She refills.

 

FRANCES

I was angry. I was very angry. But he wasn’t drunk that night.

 

Frances shakes her head.

 

Jamie watches her sadly. Megan, Moriah, and Miriam wait entitled to more answers.

 

FRANCES

He had a mental break down. Don’t you remember after—he wasn’t well. We kept the house quiet, I thought you understood.

 

Jamie looks up at Megan who stares at Frances, tears welling in her eyes.

 

MEGAN

Why would we understand that? We were kids. I was ten…you left us with no explanation to make sense of it all on our own.

 

JAMIE

You took care of him after that?

 

Frances looks at Jamie, almost surprised to see her.

 

She nods.

 

FRANCES

I did. He wasn’t well, that…that was the moment he broke. It was a lapse in judgment, but I helped him get better…he got better.

 

MORIAH

You said you needed help.

 

Megan, Miriam and Jamie look at her confused.

 

Frances cries a little.

 

FRANCES

I did.

 

MIRIAM

With what?

 

FRANCES

I know he wasn’t a good father.

 

Megan looks furious. Jamie looks defeated and sad.

 

MEGAN

Every time I complained, every time I tried to talk to you…and you stayed with him.

 

Megan just shakes her head in disbelief and anger.

 

Frances picks up her drink and finishes it.

 

FRANCES

That’s what a wife does. I had to protect him, I had to protect all of you, I had to protect appearances. That’s why I finished the party. That’s why I kept the house quiet, cared for him. That’s what I was supposed to do. That’s what I will continue to do. That’s what you will do as wives, because when something goes wrong we do not just end it, we must fix it…I fixed it.

 

Frances stands up, straightens her blouse.

 

FRANCES

Goodnight my sweets.

 

She leaves the kitchen.

 

9 months ago 

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

9 months ago  View high resolution

Raising Your Spirited Family An Artist’s Statement by Sonia J. Lessuck

Raising Your Spirited Family An Artist’s Statement by Sonia J. Lessuck

This project began with a collection of stories.

I was an only child of many questions, who loved stories, so my mother would tell me about growing up with her three sisters. Through her stories, I began to piece together a familial history.

As I got older and began to form individual relationships with the characters in my mother’s stories—my aunts and grandparents—something didn’t fit. The stories were lighthearted and funny; my relationships, however, seemed tense and uncomfortable.

Shaded by my own experience, I began to interpret new meaning in the stories. As I began to seek explanations, my parents included me in the reality of our complicated family dynamics. With new information I became more aware of the disparity between my mother’s memories, our family’s collective memory, and my own relationships.

This project places my mother’s stories in conversation with my own evolving understanding and interpretation of family. Many of my mother’s memories revolve around her family’s dining room table. I’ve used the presence of this table to inform my study of cinematic storytelling as a method of revealing family secrets and stories.

The Haggadahs on the table each hold an excerpt from a feature-length screenplay about a fictionalized version of my family. Above each Haggadah is a monitor, which plays the original story on which the scene in the screenplay is based. Taken together, the relationship between my mother’s memories and my experience of her memories becomes clear, revealed most saliently by the work of fiction.

On the walls of the gallery hang photographs moving in chronological order from my mother’s childhood to my own. Some photographs hang completely intact, while others have figures missing. The missing figures symbolize the gaps between the remembered and forgotten, revealed and suppressed details of my mother’s stories, as well as the family members who have been included or erased in the process of storytelling.

In creating this work, I drew inspiration from feminist video artist Martha Rolser, Judy Chicago’s installation artwork The Dinner Party, and surrealist artist René Magritte’s work dealing with images as representations.

This work is not intended as a reconstruction of a family home so much as a silhouette of the domestic setting within which family history takes place. I hope this piece invites visitors to explore and experience the ways in which this history, along with its recounting through shared memories, shapes personal identity. 

Raising Your Spirited Family, a video art piece by Sonia J. Lessuck

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

Understanding Marriage

Understanding Marriage Haggadah

Just as the Haggadah at a Passover Seder is a means of understanding individual and collective history, so is this installation.

 

The act of reading the Haggadah helps illuminate historical events through textual analysis, personal interpretations, and shared insights.

 

At this table you are invited to experience my familial history through personal memory work, a fictionalization of those memories, and finally your own interpretation of the relationship between the two.

 

The following passage from my feature-length screenplay, Raising Your Spirited Family, is a fictional interpretation of the story told by my mother on the monitor before you.

INT. ADLER KITCHEN.

 

Miriam stands at the center of the women facing Frances, her chest rising and falling in sweeping breaths of intensity.

 

No response. Jamie turns her head briskly looking to Frances, Moriah, and her mother. She looks shocked.

 

JAMIE

Grandma sent everyone to see Zayde on his 40th birthday when he was drunk and puking.

 

Gasps.

 

Jamie exhales a breath of relief.

 

Frances looks at Jamie confused and then to her daughters.

 

FRANCES

You all have no idea do you?

 

Moriah and Megan stare frozen and shocked.

 

Frances walks to a cupboard. She pulls out five tumblers and pulls a bottle of vodka from the freezer. She places the glasses on the table and motions for the women to join her, they oblige.

 

FRANCES

Pour.

 

Nobody moves at first. Frances rubs her forehead, the four women stare at her confused. Moriah nudges Megan and gestures at the bottle of vodka.

 

Megan shaking her head and rolling her eyes opens the bottle and pours five glasses. Frances takes a large sip. Megan, Moriah and Miriam take sips, Jamie holds the glass up to her face, takes a whiff, holds her nose, and sips.

 

FRANCES

You know your father didn’t want me to have you, don’t you?

 

Everyone looks confused.

 

Miriam, Moriah and Megan all point to themselves questioning.

 

Frances takes a sip and wags her finger at Miriam.

 

FRANCES

You my sweet. He thought three was too many.

 

Miriam’s jaw drops and she begins to sob uncontrollably.

 

Jamie and Megan look at Frances disgusted. Moriah looks at Miriam in anguish.

 

MEGAN

What is wrong with you?

 

Jamie nods in agreement, Miriam sobs louder, Moriah continues to look at Miriam from across the table in pain.

 

MORIAH

Help her!

 

Jamie looks surprised and throws her arms around Miriam, who slowly begins to regain her breath.

 

FRANCES

When I got pregnant he suggested I you know…

 

MEGAN

Get an abortion?

 

FRANCES

Take care of it. But I refused. So I tried very hard to protect you.

 

Frances reaches to rub Miriam’s arm. Jamie pulls Miriam closer out of Frances’ reach then reaches for her glass and takes a swig, this time without holding her nose.

 

Everyone stares at Frances.

 

FRANCES

There’s a lot that goes on in a marriage that no one else gets to see. Yes, maybe your father wasn’t always around, actually and emotionally. But surely I was. And I did my best.

 

Frances places her hand on Megan’s.

 

FRANCES

Perhaps not equally with all of you. But I tried.

 

Megan looks at her mother’s hand disgusted.

 

FRANCES

Shortly before that evening…

 

INT. ADLER BEDROOM. – 1973.

 

Frances and Richard stand in their bedroom yelling at one another. Frances storms around the room throwing jewelry and picture frames at him. He covers himself in protection and shame.

 

FRANCES

What! What does she give you? What could she possibly give you? She’s not your family!

 

RICHARD

EXACTLY! That’s exactly it! I’m about to be 40…is this really all I have to show for it! A wife? Three daughters? What have I done that’s extraordinary? I’m a doctor for god sake Frances!

 

Frances shakes her head and sobs, she clenches her fists.

 

FRANCES

We loved you.

 

RICHARD

She thinks I’m incredible, she asks me to teach her things.

 

Frances screams and grabs a clock to throw at him.

 

FRANCES

TEACH HER THINGS…TEACH HER THINGS! I’M SURE SHE DOES! GET OUT, just GET OUT!

 

RICHARD

ME! ME! I’m not welcome in this home now? I PAY FOR THIS HOME!

 

Richard picks up a necklace from the floor.

 

RICHARD

I pay for these things…YOUR THINGS!

 

FRANCES

I have money of my own!

 

RICHARD

Your family’s money…that’s done nothing for us! You can’t leave me! What will people think? How will it look. Why can’t you think about the girls!

 

Frances takes a bellowing and angry gasp.

 

FRANCES

The girls. THE GIRLS! All I do is think about the girls! You can’t think about them long enough to KEEP YOUR PANTS ZIPPED!

 

Frances stares at her husband tears streaming down her face.

 

INT. ADLER KITCHEN.

 

Frances stares, tears streaming down her face. She lifts her glass to take a sip but its empty. She refills.

 

FRANCES

I was angry. I was very angry. But he wasn’t drunk that night.

 

Frances shakes her head.

 

Jamie watches her sadly. Megan, Moriah, and Miriam wait entitled to more answers.

 

FRANCES

He had a mental break down. Don’t you remember after—he wasn’t well. We kept the house quiet, I thought you understood.

 

Jamie looks up at Megan who stares at Frances, tears welling in her eyes.

 

MEGAN

Why would we understand that? We were kids. I was ten…you left us with no explanation to make sense of it all on our own.

 

JAMIE

You took care of him after that?

 

Frances looks at Jamie, almost surprised to see her.

 

She nods.

 

FRANCES

I did. He wasn’t well, that…that was the moment he broke. It was a lapse in judgment, but I helped him get better…he got better.

 

MORIAH

You said you needed help.

 

Megan, Miriam and Jamie look at her confused.

 

Frances cries a little.

 

FRANCES

I did.

 

MIRIAM

With what?

 

FRANCES

I know he wasn’t a good father.

 

Megan looks furious. Jamie looks defeated and sad.

 

MEGAN

Every time I complained, every time I tried to talk to you…and you stayed with him.

 

Megan just shakes her head in disbelief and anger.

 

Frances picks up her drink and finishes it.

 

FRANCES

That’s what a wife does. I had to protect him, I had to protect all of you, I had to protect appearances. That’s why I finished the party. That’s why I kept the house quiet, cared for him. That’s what I was supposed to do. That’s what I will continue to do. That’s what you will do as wives, because when something goes wrong we do not just end it, we must fix it…I fixed it.

 

Frances stands up, straightens her blouse.

 

FRANCES

Goodnight my sweets.

 

She leaves the kitchen.

 

Raising Your Spirited Family An Artist’s Statement by Sonia J. Lessuck
Understanding Marriage Haggadah

About:

Sonia Lessuck graduated with a B.A. in Art History/Visual Arts. Her emphasis was Film & Media Studies, specifically screenwriting. For her senior comprehensive she wrote a feature length screenplay entitled Raising Your Spirited Family based on a collection of her own family stories. From that she built a multi-modal, multi-room installation to portray her movement from experience to memory to fiction.

Sonia is currently living in Brooklyn with roommates and is the gallery coordinator at gallery 307 in Chelsea. For more information on the gallery visit gallery307.tumblr.com.

To contact the artist you may e-mail her at Sjlessuck@gmail.com or visit http://flavors.me/soniajlessuck

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