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England, more specifically London, had been the intended but never reached destination of my family when leaving Afghanistan. Through the lifespan of our journey, my pair of little golden earrings travelled with us. These were the only items that weren't bartered, lost or taken along the way. Hanging on the ears of a young girl, the potential capital of a small chunk of gold was kept just a little safer from thieves and thugs than in an adult’s bag.

Especially for an exhibition at Copperfield in London, I made Because you think it gives you hope. Years after my family sought refuge in The Netherlands, I finally symbolically completed the transformation the moment I arrived in London — the realised value of a melted earring and its potential value. Just as migrant and refugee families have to adapt to local norms, so will the gold, in an attempt to maintain the shape of two different currencies. One earring has been melted into a pence; what was desired once. The other earring is melted to a cent; what was actually attained.

The destruction of the only physical commodity that has survived the dangerous journey and has witnessed the horrors along the way might appear as sacrilege, like the destruction of a precious relic. But for me, it caused relief because there was one less embodiment of the journey’s spectre. The shadow of that which the cast coin once was results in an empty stone mould: a hopeful release of sharable memories.