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“WE carry our home within us which enables us to fly.”
- John Cage, Composer.

I carry HOME within me; Home is that place where I feel at peace with myself. Where I feel safe. Where I feel that I belong.

HOMEWARD BOUND

Artists’ Statement.

I must admit that preparing and working on this exhibition was a journey that took me inward. A journey which was both difficult and challenging. A questioning of what is home, where is home and why we need home. It was difficult to narrow such wide perception into three definitions:

1) The physical perception of home. 2) The psychological expression of home and 3) the emotional identification of home. What was even more difficult was trying to put these into a visual form.

I have chosen to portray my understanding of HOME in black and white. Black and white demands attention to composition, contrast and the context it is created for. It communicates a sense of timelessness and individuality juxtaposed with purity and conception.

I have also chosen to use the most simple and basic geometric forms to display the complicated concept of HOME because these patterns form the basis of our visual language. They are the rules of form in two and three dimensions. The starting point for our visual understanding of the world.

HOME is a part of everyday life yet it is such a complex expression that encompasses so much variation for each individual.

INK AND CANVAS:

HOME in the psychological expression is about self identity, culture and heredity. HOME here identifies that inner space that we fit in. An inner space which is uniquely individual, like a fingerprint that holds our past, present and future.

I have chosen painting to make my point about HOME as a psychological experience. Self-identity, culture and heredity. We come into existence as white canvases on which we print our past and form our future. I have applied ink spontaneously in one application. Some parts of the canvas refused the ink showing itself as white dots through the black ink implying the hidden inherited aspects out of our control.

GLASS SCULPTURE:

HOME from the physical perception is a tangible space that provides shelter, privacy, security and comfort. That space can be a house, a tower, a caravan, a library. It is a man made structure that we choose to call home.

I have chosen sculptures made from glass and granite to make my point about the physical perception of HOME. Shelter, security, privacy and comfort. Where stone, steel and glass have been used for years in our construction of home.

GLASS ON GLASS:

HOME from the emotional identification is about relationships, social and personal. The interactions with the world around us that are held in the constantly fragile space between the self and others.

I have chosen glass on glass to highlight my point about HOME as an emotional identification. Relationships and interaction, like glass, are fragile and yet strong at the same time, transparent and yet at sometimes opaque.

HOME is that intricate compilation of experiences, memories, culture and identity that can only be read in the context of the individual. It is that place where we are in harmony with ourselves. That place we carry within ourselves and call it HOME.

This exhibition took me back to where I belong,
my Home within. Mona Ketelsen. (Perth 2009)