The Wax Room

The room contained shelves of objects wrapped in dark wax: tools, letters, a child's shoe, three keys and a sealed medical vial. The wax had formed around each object differently, leaving small windows where the original surface remained visible.

The conservator removed the objects but kept the shells in their original positions. MOTHER requested that the wax be melted and catalogued as material. The conservator refused, arguing that the protection had recorded the shape of every threat that reached the room.

One shell held no object at all. It was warm inside and still sealed.