Artists Sherelene Cuffe, Jude Woods, Bobbi Rae, Siamak Rezaei and sister Roshanak Rezaei together hosted the HOME house-warming event at the Art Hostel last month. Guests enjoyed performances of spoken poetry, artist talks as well as some scrumptious party food, while viewing for ‘one-night-only’ the artistic responses to what does home mean now? This question was the focus of the debut residency, HOME at the Art Hostel in 2021.
Emerging from Seeding Art Currency (project in 2018) the theme home was decided by former Art Hostel residents, and was explored in HOME (2021) at the Art Hostel’s new home. In the run up to weekly online events in April 2021, we tweeted #WhatDoesHomeMeanNow? The responses (helped by a human algorithm) became represented by split peas, sorted into jars, labelled by categories: 1) Comforting & Confining 2) Objects & Structures and 3) Actions & Making – creating the HOME Portrait Installation. The peas are to be enjoyed later by Art Hostel residents at future communal meals.
Food offerings are a universal tradition at all house-warming events and thank you to Sherelene and Roshanak for their delicious contributions (see fig. 1) that were enjoyed by all during the evening. Thank you also to the performances of the evening: Jude Woods for their critique of (past and present) housing issues, Giselle and Melanie Cuffe for their recital of ‘Grannie Beatrice’ a poem by Sherelene Cuffe (see fig. 1) and Roshanak for giving me the honour of reciting her short-prose ‘Where is home?’.
All aspects of the HOME project, from its conception, planning, virtual and real exhibition were participatory – with artists, East St Arts and publics. The curatorial approach of the project was designed to achieve the highest form of participation and the evening event indeed was a success, as artists were the ‘hosts’ and publics were involved in the interpretation as they kindly exchanged their thoughts on home in discussion and in writings (see fig 2).
Publics responses were also captured by social media and it was these that were transformed into peas, placed in jars, which after sorting (the fullest jar) reveals the meaning of home to be an experience, rather than a place or activity. While exploring what home now means (after the onset of COVID-19) it was deemed important to reach out to those that have experienced imposed change and forced to leave their home. After reaching-out to LASSN (Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network) artist Siamak Rezaei and his sister Roshanak, joined us in creating the adjoining HOME Portrait publication (magazine). Printed copies are to be placed in the Art Hostel rooms to welcome future residents, along with some other house-warming gifts (Bobbi Rae’s blankets, Siamak’s collage, Sherelene’s poem and Jude’s bender) at the much anticipated Art Hostels opening.
When material cultures are affected by transition and social change, they often become meaningful in new ways. Home (2021) is a good example of how cultural places, thoughts of home, shift around the world; creativity often enabling and maintaining a renewed sense of the self. This exhibition and programme of events usefully explored the work and ideas of several artists, poets and makers and their creative production around the idea of Home.
Janine Sykes developed and curated such key activities bringing the artists and their work together into one space. Here, the making and replacing of a cultural self was offered in relation to the idea of Home. Creativity was a key theme but there were also social and economic resonances, meaning the idea of creating an idea of Home also touched the viewer by means of recording a displacement, a transition, change and the passage of time.
The Home House-Warming event was extremely credible, thought provoking and creative in its responses to the question, ‘What does home mean now?’. The exhibition space at the Art Hostel contained wall hangings, constructed artworks, mosaic artefacts and poetry delivered with a sense of co-creation with their audiences. The artist and the viewer were involved together. Listening, watching, reading and responding to work about Home. This constructed on so many levels, a participatory experience, at times provoking the interstitial space, temporal perhaps, but lasting in terms of its sense of participation and memory.
Kate Hatton 2021