HOME is HERE Exhibition - Valentina Pena

Walking into HOME HERE what I found was not a typical gallery space but a shared memory. The exhibit is a continuous flow with little to no separation between artists which in turn makes the experience very intimate and interwoven. Instead of separate works vying for focus what we have is a piece that overlaps and breathes as one. The show looks at history, memory and the concept of “home” but in a very personal and not at all abstract way. As I moved through the space I was walking through pieces of many lives which in some way are all connected.

One piece that left an impression on me was Jennifer Roberts’ Family Album series. In the corner of the gallery small paintings are displayed above a wall which is decorated with vintage family photos which she has arranged in long rows. The photos go all around the walls which present a quiet yet large scale archive of anonymous lives. Birthdays, children, couples, everyday events they are very familiar even though they don’t belong to us. After reading of her experience of losing her own family photo archive and then buying old family photos from online auctions the piece hit home. There is something powerful in the recreation of memory through images that aren’t your own. It made me think of how memory is not fixed -- it is a thing we put back together. As a storyteller in my art I am drawn to that idea. I develop characters and narratives which are personal although they are a product of my imagination. Roberts’ work brought out for me that story telling can be at once very personal and also shared.

Another which stood out to me was Tina Maneca’s Comfort is an Action installation. At first see it appears to be a scene from a nursery a bassinet set on top of a colorful quilt, which is gently covered by a sheer canopy. In the bassinet are stuffed animals which are placed in a very tender way, and the patchwork fabrics provide a sense of warmth and texture. It is a feeling of safety. But as I spent more time with the piece it became more complex. The quilt designs, the fine workmanship, the physicality of the fabric all of it plays into the idea that comfort is a construct. It is put together. It is sewn. Her statement about what she was exploring in terms of memory, migration, and lived experience added a whole other layer of meaning to the work. I was drawn to this piece for her use of textiles and domestic materials. It got me thinking beyond the paint about space, objects and how physical materials can hold emotion.

 

 

Overall what you experience at HOME HERE is an ongoing thing as if the exhibit is still developing even after you leave. The works don’t assert themselves -- they quietly put forth which in turn invites you to think. The show is less a presentation and more a discussion of issues related to belonging, memory, and the spaces we make ours. I picked these two works out which both deal in reconstruction one through the use of photos and paint, the other through fabric and installation. They play into my own preoccupation with identity and story. What I also see in them is that art doesn’t just depict home -- it can help create it.