<aside> 👤

Reviving the chaotic memories of Facebook images through words.

Written when focusing on the absence of people during the pandemic in my childhood home. I have a tito (uncle) who took photos and uploaded them routinely to Facebook. They were spontaneous, un-curated and beautiful errors. I was inspired by Hollis Frampton’s ephemeral technique: Talking of an image, then burning it.

</aside>

7th March 2010.

Cradled in her hands are flowers coloured like the sun. Her cheeks burn red with surprise and the colour is deepened by the shadows her black and white knitted striped cap. Behind her is my ‘Tito’ Ruel in his black jacket, his work badge, and a white polo peeking. Dangled from every cosy crevice are balloons, bubbly ‘40’ and a cheap yellow and pink ‘Happy Birthday’ slanted on each wall.

24th April 2012.

Ravenous kids assemble around a table, licking their lips. Plonked on it: a rectangular chocolate cake. My aunties clap and record this moment on their iPhone 5s. On the small table, the cake is topped with multicoloured letters in ‘Happy Birthday’. The star of the show is the number ‘50’ lined in blue. To the right, a dining table chair is a makeshift table for another cake. Enough cake to feed all the children. Swinging from the ceiling are decorations, growing from the floor are silver balloons. Tito Apol wears an apple coloured hat, his grin spreads widely. There’s a lot of red in this, my mum’s checkered blouse, Kiara’s red coat and of course, Tito Apol’s apple coloured hat.

10th March 2013.

Lots of pink and purple. Purple is the colour of the canvas holding a collage of my childhood photos. Purple is the balloon at the top of the pile of balloons, squeezing into the picture. Pink are the helium balloons that didn’t get as much attention as purple. Pink is the colour of the gift bag. Pink is the colour of the plastic chair, where the gift bag is sat on. Pink is the colour of a top I wore in the bottom right corner of my purple coloured canvas collage.

29th April 2013.

Hums of orange fire is smudged on the left edge. I think they were lighting lanterns. It’s our unpainted back-garden, no extension yet. On the right there’s a green gazebo and the back of someone’s head. There’s tito Ronald, tito Popoy, tito Apol, kuya Kenneth, ate Gia and my mum and dad. My dad’s grey Superdry top rides up. He’s doing a hybrid pose of Spiderman and the Jumpman logo. Their fingers all point up, there’s a number one, a Spiderman web shooter, a peace sign and the best of all, a thumbs up.

19th April 2013

It’s tito Popoy, tita Anna and tita Mean (me- an). Tita Mean just finished work because there’s an NHS coloured blue uniform peeking out under her coat. I live next to the hospital. There’s no rainbow shimmering ‘Happy Birthday’ signs, but there are balloons: condoms. I just realised they are. They are joined together with colourful ribbon, some curl, some droop.

© Shania J. Saldi