CHI NGUYEN

You Said You Were Fine on Nights Like This

Medium: Hand-spun and hand-knitted steel wool
Year: 2014

You said you were fine on nights like this
is an attempt to answer the who of her and the what of us. As in:
She—I call a friend during years spent together apart in terms non-concrete. She—I call a lover on days I felt braver than the rest. When I’m alone, she remains my constant her, and I her constant she, without needs for explanation or hesitation. Two years after we met, she became my first time dealing with suicide, my guilt for not seeing the signs, my asking how I could have missed her being fine. Six years after the fact, yesterday and today, she became my N.W. still full of flesh for me yet nameless for those outside of us.