When faced with the challenge of creating an installation during our last year of high school, my friend and I asked ourselves this question. Because we were, in every sense, growing up.

 

For starters, this was our last year living at home with our parents, and we were preparing for one of the biggest decisions in our lives - university. We were changing - evolving, as some would say - and adapting to the world around us. We could either make it, or be broken by it.

We chose to create an installation based on paper cranes flying out of a cage - ones that would gradually transition from black to white to show growth and maturity. Or comparatively, as someone trapped in the abyss of their own mind to someone finally at peace with himself / herself.

 

We incorporated interactivity by encouraging students to write a wish on a crane. Growing up doesn't mean you have to stop dreaming; growing up is about making those dreams a reality.

 

To pay homage to our roots, we named our installation "Le Depayse", which means "the Homesick". By roots, we don't mean our culture, but our home. Because as far as we go and as high as we reach, we always have our home to thank for teaching us what it means to be a person.