Being Adopted is a three-part participatory installation exploring the emotional landscape of adult adoptees through crowdsourced words, immersive environment, and a two-channel video. An online questionnaire asked self-identified adult adoptees: “If you could choose any 3 words to describe your experience as an adoptee, which ones would you choose?” 252 people from 16 countries responded, generating 371 distinct words.

Each participant’s three words, name (as they identified), and country were hand-written onto colored index cards, creating a physical archive of adoptee voices. These cards are suspended at varying heights throughout the installation space using fishing line and lead weights — the fishing line evoking invisibility, the varied heights suggesting the scattered, non-hierarchical nature of adoptee experiences. The suspended cards create two curtain-like walls to form an intimate room within the larger gallery space.

Inside this room, two chairs face a two-channel video installation. On one channel, the artist plays the childhood game of Memory with cards displaying the individual words, revealing both shared themes and divergences across adoptee experiences. The second channel presents an abstract, rhythmic counting and display of all 371 words. A coffee table between the chairs holds card sets, inviting visitors to play their own game of Memory: mirroring the fragmented, repetitive work of piecing together identity. The fine-tip Sharpie used to inscribe the words bled through the paper; thus, while playing Memory and the cards are face down, they display shadow-traces visible before the words themselves are revealed. This sequence, encountering residue before source, echoes the adoptee experience of piecing together identity from fragments.

The installation transforms data into embodied experience: visitors must move through the suspended cards to enter the viewing space, physically navigating the density of adoptee voices. The participatory game element shifts viewers from passive observers to active participants in the work of making connections and seeking patterns: the same labor adoptees perform in understanding our experiences within the broader community context.

The project is ongoing… Are you an adult adoptee?

What are your three words?