The Art house Jersey are currently holding an art exhibition called ‘no place like home’. There are a few different parts to this exhibition with the gallery at capital house, the dissent module that was placed at Les Platons, and the floating earth that was at Queens valley reservoir.

‘No place like home’ is currently being held at the art gallery with a wide range of art work from many different artists locally and internationally. The whole exhibition is aimed to get people thinking about what home means to them in terms of personally as well as nationally and even globally. We live in a time where housing is currently in crisis with the cost of them as well as the cost of living meaning home isn’t always a happy place for people. It is also aimed to get people to think about the condition of our planet and its health, this is also a very serious topic which many people don’t consider. The gallery has showcased pieces from small canvases to big sculptures and area set ups, this allows for members of the public to walk around analysing the pieces and even interact with some of them.

The creators of ‘No Place like Home’, Rosalind Davis and Laura Hudson said:

“We wanted to create an exhibition where everyone can feel at home. A key aim of ArtHouse Jersey is to make the arts accessible to the wider community, which was why we were drawn to a subject matter that will mean something to everyone. Home is of course a loaded term, and its connotations will be different for all of us. For many it will be a sanctuary, but for some it may have less positive associations. No Place Like Home builds a rich narrative and delves into personal stories, global issues, childhood memories, and speculative worlds as well as the bleak realities of the current housing market. The artists do not shy away from difficult issues, but rather tackle them with inventiveness, pathos, humour and a generosity of spirit. Alongside the gallery works, three installations will be announced in the coming weeks which will take their place in surprising settings around the Island.”

The dissent module was made by the artist Rachel Ara to show her concerns of the idea of home and the assumption that it is always a safe place to be as for some people it isn’t, and if fact it one of the most dangerous place where a high percentage of crime is committed. Ara has designed the interior module to be like a womb to replicate a safe place for someone to be, with the module being a metaphor for returning home safely.

The floating earth, that drew a large amount of the publics attention, was created be the artist Luke Jerram. It was also part of Art House Jersey’s exhibition ‘No Place like Home’ and was also partnered with Jersey water. It was aimed to show people how we all think of home as different places but they are all in the universe/world. The event was already set up previous to it’s arrival in Jersey and after many discussions with Art House Jersey, Jersey Water and Luke Jerram’s team it was able to be places in the reservoir for 12 days where it attracted over 31,000 members of the public. This was a great opportunity for Jersey to experience more exhibitions which as a result beings the community together. Many photographers and regular members of the public shared their images and videos online which only attracted more and more people as well as schools and charity groups. The floating earth was aimed to create the effect of someone in space looking back at the earth with that nostalgic feeling being present.

‘Expertly curated, No Place Like Home features the work of local and internationally acclaimed artists and invites Islanders to consider their ‘home’ on a personal, national, global and even cosmic scale. The exhibition features 23 gallery based artworks and three external installation pieces, all of which explore ‘home’ from different perspectives, including considerations around Jersey’s housing crisis and international perspectives on the health of our planet. Whilst we live in a time when this can be a complex and serious subject, the pieces on display are often playful and interactive and invite the viewer to reflect on their own interpretation and experience.’

I think this was a very interesting exhibition, consisting of visual and interactive components that created a experience of nostalgia. There was aspects of a more general idea of our home (like the earth) as well as more domestic factors. The ranges of mediums (painting, sculpture and others) made the exhibition very detailed and abstract.

Curated by Rosalind Davis and Laura Hudson, No Place Like Home brings both existing and newly commissioned works by artists including Rachel Ara, George Bolster, Sasha Bowles, Justin Hibbs, Ana Cvorovic, Peter Liversidge, Lindsay Rutter, Will Romeril and Lisa Traxler.

The Exhibition

The Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive (SJPA) contains over 125,000 items dating from the mid-1840s to the present day. It is the Island’s principal collection of nineteenth and early twentieth-century photography and reflects a rich history generated from our geographical and cultural position between Britain and France, two nations that were prominent in developing the medium.

During the trip, the class listened to a presentation from two people in the industry about how the archives are stored and sorted. We learnt that they take archival donations of photographic materials, causing their collection to rapidly grow each day.

Due to the Elizabeth Castle project, I photographed this old map of Elizabeth Castle.

I also found this drawing of St. Helier’s hermitage, before the breakwater connecting it to the castle was built.

These pictures of Elizabeth Castle and Gorey Castle were also quite interesting, showing what the castles looked like in the past.

SJ Photographic Archive

On their website (above) it is mentioned how ‘we hold over 15,000 portraits of named individuals, together with views of every bay, valley and vista across the Island. Our collection offers a detailed visual record of Jersey and Channel Islands history and is an excellent representation of technical and aesthetic developments throughout the photographic era.’

We visited the Société Jersiaise archives to have a look at what archival materials they had of Elizabeth Castle.

The Société Jersiaise photographic archives mission is to produce and facilitate research on the Island’s history. They achieve this by working with local and international heritage partners. The Société holds extensive bibliographic, cartographic, photographic and research collections. These collections show us our heritage and are valued by the Jersey community.

We also visited Capital House to see an exhibition called no place like home which displayed a range of artists work.

No Place Like Home exhibition

We also, visited the exhibition at Capital House called ‘No Place Like Home’ which had a range of work by various artists from all over the world on what they viewed as ‘home.’

One artists work that I was drawn to was Harriet Mena Hill Aylesbury Estate Fragments. It was made up of pieces of concrete that are from the demolished housing estate Aylesbury in South East London. She was moved by the residents stories and wanted to document them.

Chris Marker was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director multi media artist. Marker is most known for his film La Jetée, a French science fiction short film. La Jetée tells the story of the post-nuclear war experiment in time travel.

La Jetée isn’t like a stereotypical film, it consists entirely of still black and white images, the addition of sound, music and voice overs gives the film a cinematic feel. The cleaver and though out use of the still images and sounds makes the film interesting and helps the viewers connect with the storyline.

The storyline is about a man who travels in and out of time in an experiment to try and discover the fate and the solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world during the aftermath of WW3. The experiment results in him getting caught up in a past events that are recreated on an airport viewing pier.