Ruby Chu

Requiem (for the wayfaring stranger) | In 2018, someone told me about a cathedral with peacocks living in the backyard in New York City. Four years later, I moved into a new flat right by the Cathedral and found the peacocks upon my first visit. 

I felt compelled to document the lives of these peacocks, not knowing why. So, I started visiting them weekly for over eight months. At some point, different details and motifs of their environment started presenting themselves to me. I didn’t understand why I felt such intimacy with this place and the birds, but I appreciated what awaits at the end of this labyrinth in disguise. 

Eventually, this study had led me to confront my unfulfilled need for closure. In 2018, three of my friends attempted suicide, and sadly two died by it. Like others, I was helplessly left with a sense of confusion, guilt, and grief. 

In this unusual urban setting in which these divine birds live, the manmade architecture and animals both appeared to be out of place, with no escape. By the juxtaposition of the recurring motifs, an understanding manifested in me. With the weight of a society that you cannot escape, I suppose I can now better understand how one has chosen to escape, a different way to find refuge. www.rubychu.com