Home Anywhere, Home Nowhere, mixed-media collage paintings on stretched canvas H90 x W60cm, 2012. Exhibited in Centre Hassan II, Assilah Morocco.
“The first step (to wisdom) is to be at home anywhere, and the second step, is to be at home nowhere.” Buddhist Monk.
Home is part of our identity as individuals. A home is a psychological and emotional space created by those who live within the walls of the house. The space of home can influence the shape of our identity, and our identity can shape the form of our home. I tried to create an interrelationship between my past home in Australia and my present home in China by using materials I have collected from each place. In this work I have used photographs of pavements, trees, walls and other surfaces from the built and natural environment in Sydney, my own Chinese ink brush paintings and other materials collected during my travels to Turkey and Morocco for artist camps. The materials are cut up, and integrated in the form of collage panels. The resulting work is a meditation on what home means to me, and how it changes according to the context I find myself within.