“Because you asked…” is a participatory artwork including contributions from 23 people across the globe. Work has come from India, Australia, England, USA, Scotland, Wales, The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland.

A call and response project – A matchbox waiting for contents. An intimate space to be filled. I made a request on social media, and people met me with their artworks, objects, and words.

The text below has been constructed from excerpts from the contributors’ context statements and letters to me…

A short story from many voices

She leans over the wall of a rooftop terrace, cigarette in hand, the city unfolding below her under the hush of night. Somewhere far from here, a world imagined by humans unfolds - one where robots ponder nature, and artificial eyes explore what it means to be alive…
To be here… to hold what he held, tight in my palm. A disc, always cold to start with, warming as the moments pass. A coin.
Pennies were important to dad; he grew up in a time and place where sometimes, there simply weren’t any. I think of the ephemera I’ve hoarded for years - bits and bobs, fragments of memory. A small snippet of red thread. A pink stone pin once given to grandma when he was just a child.
 
The holiday felt like a breathing space between past and present, a quiet pause. Our greatest pleasure now, is in the twice-daily walks, - slow, deliberate steps through discovery, exploration, and tentative marks left on the world. And I remember a small hand in mine, the estuary to my right, pockets filling with charred wood, and wondering aloud. The very element that makes burning possible also makes life possible.