Joyce Alexander’s Waitin’ For What Once Was delves into her yearning for a time when she was young, enveloped by the presence of her family. A time when she was unaware of challenges beyond washing the mud off her arms and legs before she ran inside for dinner– moments she wishes to extend, symbolizing the dinner she longs to have once again.

Feeling a lack of agency and power over her life, Alexander crafts ephemeral sculptures out of sugar, creating a vessel upon which she is able to imbue her grief and mourning when she cannot hold it within herself. Referencing the song, What Once Was by the band Her’s, she alludes to her father’s passing and the longing to return to a time when she shared the same plane of existence as him. 

No Miu, No More offers an accelerated and contained decay, while Waitin’ For What Once Was simultaneously looks back at what can no longer return while refusing to accept its irretrievable nature. Alexander's incorporation of ephemeral media reinforces the notion of perpetual decay and ceaseless continuation.