On the day (28/09/2023), we had visited the Art house to see the new exhibition, No Place Like Home. This exhibition is an ambitious showcase curated by Laura Hudson and Rosalind Davis and it considers how we all think of home and our place in the universe.
It is a collaboration of different artists, some even from the UK, their artworks and responses to the subject drastically vary between the artists. Some that I have seen have been little sculptures, detailed drawings, even video responses, photographic responses, and even a self made space shuttle. One of the most popular artworks taking part in this exhibition was a floating earth shown in Queens Valley reservoir. No matter the size of the work, each piece is unique and allows us to question the definition of a home and what it means to us.
We were lucky to be talked to for a brief time by the workers at Jersey art house and we were able to ask any question regarding any form of artwork within the room. The one they had mainly discussed with us was the space shuttle.
The one that interested me the most was a piece done by Harriet Mena Hill which were clumps of concrete that had very detailed drawings on top of them of flats and apartments. As I got into reading about the artwork, these clumps of concrete were from a social housing demolition site in London. She refaced and painted the concrete with images of remnants of peoples lives who had been moved from their former homes. This piece felt special to me because I was raised in similar surroundings and it felt nostalgic knowing that the concrete used is not random and it has a profound meaning behind it.
However another artwork I enjoyed was one where paintings were punctured by plaster pieces which were made from casts of mechanical fixtures found on an industrial waste site in Bosnia. This piece was done by Ana Cvorovic. The series began during the first major lockdown in Covid-19, in which time she painted landscape themes and mountainous regions which appear to float like islands on brightly coloured tarpaulins (a material used for cover and protection). The material behind these images are mainly films that influenced her during this time and a series of images from google earth. The paintings are seductive and also objective as if we are looking for a new target. The meaning behind it is to create a contrast between peace and interruption of the natural world and human destruction.
Overall, this is my favourite exhibition that the art house has done so far because of the variety of responses from different artists and how each piece has its own originality and personality.