Leave here your fears

Like a memorial for abandoned fears, Alicia Framis’ installation Leave here your fears (2023) comprises a mirrored diamond-shaped vessel into which the audience is invited to insert their worries, after writing them down with the pencil and paper provided. The nearby fluorescent paintings are designed as poetic antidotes against insomnia, which likewise works towards materializing and deleting toxic thoughts from the installation’s participants.

Following the principles of psychoanalysis, the interactive diamond sculpture accompanies the viewer on a quest to understand their qualms and eventually chase them away through the act of verbalization. Made with the fluorescent tape used on airplanes to indicate emergency exits in the dark, Framis’ glowing paintings are aimed at fighting off the anxiety and sleeplessness that are increasingly widespread in the face of our uncertain global times.

Understanding fear as the source of aggression, disagreements, and quarrels, her work seeks to mend. In providing a safe space for expression and healing, Leave here your fears is a powerful gesture working towards social cohesion, freedom, and a new vision for global peace.

Leave here your fears, 2023 ©Alicia Framis
Commissioned by RCRC and Riyadh Art