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Artist’s book: inkjet printed photographs and text on BFK Rives paper, handbound in cloth, 24.1 x 40.6 cm (9½ x 16 in), 9 signatures, 73 pages
Text excerpt:
I have often struggled with my sense of place, expecting it to be permanent and capable of bringing out the best in me as I once hoped it would. I am forever aware of my vulnerability, that I can never run away from myself, and that I am generally humbled by the ever-changing environment that surrounds me. But the persistent impact of unfamiliar or revisited places usually afford me fresh eyes to see home anew, trigger my creative curiosity, and transform my perception of the world around me and of myself.
What feelings will this new place evoke and how will my experience change me? As I reflect upon the places I have known, I also find myself wondering what impact, if any, my presence has had on them. What traces of my existence do I leave behind?
All I need to be at home is a quiet space, where I can be alone, feel uninhibited, safe, and fully regain my sense of self. Home is a place that feels familiar, one I often compare all others to, but my childhood idea that it should include people that I can trust to protect, nurture and love me just as I am became both a myth and a dream. Though I never stopped yearning for it, I was led to believe that belonging was a sign of weakness and dependence. As a result, belonging isn’t for me something earned or permanent, tied to people and places, but rather a feeling that comes with being in harmony with the world, concurrent with events in time.
Closed, the book resembles the silhouette of an airplane wing. Its 9 signatures are spaced apart, reflecting the pauses in the characters’ thoughts, while the structure challenges the viewer’s position when leafing through the 73 pages. Its emotional text, in English to emphasize cultural ambiguity, gives voice to two unidentified individuals in transit. The telling of the story starts in an airport but mainly takes place onboard a plane. The text is regularly interrupted by a parallel visual narrative told through colour photographs of the sky and black-and-white travel pictures and pages from vintage travel albums of the late forties and early fifties.
Displayed on a small table, a chair invites the viewer to sit and leaf through the pages. On the adjacent wall is the drawing De mère (Of mother). Duo exhibition Behind Between Beyond, Gallery 101, Ottawa, July 31 to August 28, with the self-portrait masks of Miya Turnbull. Recorded virtual artist talk (starts: 19:43).
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