“If You Don’t Owe Somebody” is what I call a woven documentary, an ongoing participatory and collaborative project that started late 2020. By collecting audio responses from participants asking them to reflect on a number of questions pertaining to debt. Questions such as: what does it mean to be in debt, who do you feel indebted to, how does the weight of owing affect your day to day and/or life decisions, etc. With over three hours of audio footage, we composed an 18 minute narrative to then be woven into cloth. When exhibited both the weaving and the audio is present in the space. Weaving their words into cloth embeds their stories into an archival object, gives their words weight, and visibility. Yet, when in a space with this object the viewers also hear the individual voices. Knowing that debt is a societal problem, disproportionately affecting some more than others, it is critical to hear every individual in order to understand the collective issue. 

My sincerest appreciation to the participants whose voices, honesty, and care are the only reason this collective work continues to happen. For anonymity, and with their permission, only first names will be included. Those who wished to not have their name included is each referred to as “Anonymous”. Thank you to: Abdi, Alexa, Andrea, Anonymous, Anonymous, Anonymous, Benjamin, Brianna, Chris, Colin, Danielle, Debra, Ebi, Emily, Fran, Hannah, Ish, James, Jasmine, Jennifer, Jenny, Juan Pablo, Kotiba, Kyle, Lauren, Lindsay, Louk, Nyla, Paula, Rachel, Ralph, Salomé, Stephanie, Timothy, Tim, and Will.

This is an ongoing project. If you’re interested in participating and providing a response, please contact us here: