FRANKIE FATHERS ARTIST

The artist activated an installation about her father Michael who has Alzheimer’s disease, with a performance that explores the emotional complexities of being a caregiver. She repeated the same question, reflecting how her father asks her the same questions over and over again due to his lack of short-term memory. The artists’ emotions veer from annoyance to sadness, to love, to guilt.

Michael, once meticulous about arranging wood for his fire, now struggles to recreate the same structures, and his once carefully arranged wood piles have become erratic. This shift reflects the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimers—he can no longer remember how to stack the wood or, at times, even where he sleeps or who the artist is.

The wooden structure at the centre of the performance is called Wigwam for a Goose’s Bridle and directly responds to Michael’s deteriorating condition and his obsession with stacking twigs. The artist chose to title the structure Wigwam for a Goose’s Bridle as her father, who is from New Zealand, would often repeat this nonsense phrase to her when she asked him endless questions as a child.