Recently I went to an exhibit by Maia Ruth Lee at a local museum near me called Fotografiska in connection with their Young Members program. Fotografiska is, true to its name, a museum that focuses on the art of photography and how photography challenges, captures, and transforms our nuanced shared reality.

There were multiple exhibits, including some really incredible photography/historical photos of the development of hip-hop in the US ranging from the 1990s to the 2010s. However, one of the less-well-known and attended one, “Listen until you hear,” made me stop in my track. The exhibit is a rolling first-person point-of-view video with a narrator continuously reading out stream-of-consciousness-style thoughts that she has as she goes back to her hometown in a mountain.

In twenty minutes, I felt like I was inside of someone else’s head, seeing from their point of view, experiencing the days crawling by and the years sprinting away from her, while she reflects back to memories of her childhood near the swings. It was odd — how utterly unfamiliar her language, environment, background, surroundings, family were at the beginning, and how it all felt familiar to me at the end — like a long lost sister. I’m an only child, so it’s quite an odd feeling.