June's House by Tait Simpson

Issue 14

In July 2009, my grandmother, June, passed away at the age of 93. To help my father deal with her effects and the sale of the house, I traveled to meet him in Rogers, Arkansas. This was not my father’s childhood home and I had only been here a handful of times: June and my late grandfather, Russell, had moved late in life. They had been traveling across the country when their RV broke down on a Friday afternoon. They were forced to stay the weekend in this small town and by the time their camper was repaired, they had found a new home.

I set out to document this experience with my father and to explore the sentiments of my own grief without nostalgia. I hoped to uncover some truth about my grandparents’ lives and something universal about family and loss. In cataloguing the space they left behind, the void that is an empty house, I felt connected to their life and its summation. I found a certain tenderness for a place I had hardly known and an understanding of the distance that can exist between even the closest family.

Tait Simpson is a New York City based artist.
To view more of Tait's work, please visit his website.