Family Secrets, Hidden Adoption, Inspire Local Artist

Larry Dell says that the artwork now on display at Seton Hall, wasn’t one he chose. “This is a subject that chose me,” he explains, when he learned, at age 59, that he had been adopted as a child, his biological parents unknown.

 The work is part of windows@walsh 4.0, on display until September, and featuring the work of Gianluca Bianchino, Dell, Vandana Jain, Lester Johnson, Lori Merhige and Lorena La Grassa. The fourth annual invitational show of site-specific artwork is curated by Jeanne Brasile.

Dell, who has written for Patch on the subject, explains that, “as told by my mother the story of my birth went like this:

The summer I was born, 1948, was one of the hottest on record, and August the hottest month. August 18, the day I was born, was worst of the worst, a real scorcher, the temperature approaching 100 degrees.”

“I heard this story numerous times and it never failed to get the expected response. Women go through a lot to become mothers, they don’t get the credit they deserve and a mother’s love for her child is a powerful connection forged in pain and discomfort,” explains Dell.

“As family stories go it was a good one,” he continues. “The only problem was it wasn’t true.”

 Dell’s recent work has taken him in new directions, as he pursues more information about his past and processes what he has learned.  “To deal with the shock and trauma of this new reality I have created mixed media sculpture out of steel wire, foam rubber chicken wire, paint and other media as well as prints, drawings and documentation about my discovery,” he says.  “Much of the work deals with the moment of my birth to a woman I never knew.”

The artwork on display at Seton Hall is in a large exterior window of Walsh Library. It is visible 24 hours a day, making it artwork for dark and light, day and night. Dell explains that the subject of the installation is also part of a performance piece I’m creating,  entitled, “ (My) Lost Identity: A Reflection on Dishonesty, Secrecy, Politics and Love.’ “

Dell is quick to add to the story, “My parents -- we were so close it's hard for me to call them adoptive parents --  were wonderful, loving, supportive and kind. I never felt anything from them but unqualified love. But in the end my mother (my father died when I was 18) at some point after I was an adult, should have told me I was adopted.”

Dell notes that he continues to seek for information about his past. “Since I learned of my adoption I've discovered, through the New York State Adoption Registry non-identifying information, that I was the fifth child in my original family and that my birth parents were both 39 when I was born. So my parents are likely gone but somewhere out there I have four siblings that I never knew, as well as cousins and other relatives.”

He is not the only one seeking more, says Dell. “Across the country there are more people then you'd imagine with similar stories. That's why I've become active in the movements in New Jersey and New York to allow adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Currently in most states when you're adopted you're issued an amended birth that substitutes you adopted parents for your birth parents effectively taking them out of your life forever. It's time for the U.S. to put an end to all the secrecy and catch up to the rest of the world. For example, England open birth records for adult adoptees in the mid 70s without any of the dire consequences predicted by opponents of open records.”

 As he continues to seek answers, Dell's work at Seton Hall offers a public display of a long-held secret.