This piece was born during a two-week residency in Mompox with the Escuela del Agua y la Tierra (School of Water and Earth), an immersion into the crafts of the region. I chose filigree and shared the L y L workshop with its artisans, learning the technique and listening to their life stories.

Mompox, with the Magdalena River and its sense of a town suspended in time, immediately brought me to Gabriel García Márquez's magical realism, and with it, to my uncle, whom I lost two years ago. His favorite book was One Hundred Years of Solitude, where the little gold fish made in filigree hold a central place.

As I walked through the town, I paused at the wrought-iron grilles and the hearts drawn within them. From that observation, and from memory, I created my own articulated little fish: an artifact for remembering, and for feeling my uncle closer.