Homecoming
Supported by Arts Council England, funded using public money through the National Lottery Projects Grants 2019/20.
In Kind support by: Welcome to English, SEAS Brighton, EuroMernet, UrbanFlo, East St Arts, ArtLink Hull, RED gallery.
The artist/project was also supported by two residencies - Artist Lockin @ Art House Jersey Oct 2019 and at SEAS (Soically Engaged Art Salon) Brighton Feb 2020.
Homecoming; A Placeless Place asks the public a simple question: What does home mean to you?
Homecoming; A Placeless Place is one iteration of HOMECOMING and is an on-going interactive installation made for on going public participation where anyone can contribute to the blackened out walls of any public space, by either writing or drawing with UV pens in any language they choose onto the walls directly. No UV torches are offered to the public throughout the social experiment so that the project can be as inclusive as possible.
The project HOMECOMING is much wider then this experiment with further details explained below in other sections.
So far Homecoming'; A Placeless Place has been experienced in the following spaces:
Hull city center - Feb/March 2020 (just before the first UK lockdown)
Scarborough - Summer 2020 - In association with Scarborough Museums Trust, a digital iteration of this idea was created and presented into a film, with contributions made from local communities: Homecoming; A Placeless Place (Scarborough Edition)
London - Oct 2021 - As part of NOW Gallery, Homecoming; A Placeless Place (Scarborough Edition) was shown alongside black card and UV pens for further contributions, as part of the event night Citizens of Everywhere.
London - March - May 2022 - As part of SPACE Artist Awards Exhibition, Homecoming; A Placeless Place (Scarborough Edition) is being shown alongside blackened tables and UV pens for further contributions.
Homecoming LPP (Live Projection Painting) behind the scenes still.
General view of exhibition space including; Homecoming installation and Homecoming; A Placeless Place.
Homecoming Installation using mixed mediums, water and projection 2020.
Homecoming 33; Still taken from my taster presentation of ‘Homecoming 33’ where I tested the idea of the proposed long duration (33hour) performance for 20minutes only. Homecoming 33 is a public facing, participatory LPP (Live Projection Painting) which encourages involvement of members of the public to help both reveal the projected image and to encourage the continuation of the durational piece. It also welcomes any public readings/sounds/music from members of the general public throughout it’s duration.
Homecoming; Workshops. Multi - Sensory 1/2 day Socially Engaged workshops for Adults inviting experimentation, verbal & non verbal exchange and feedback.
*COVID- 19 Update & direct reflection from Estabrak: Homecoming was a project created between Sept 2019 - Feb 2020, right before the COVID-19 spread hit the UK, during it's global contamination.
Looking at the project now (April 2020+) it seems so strange to have gathered and collected a wide response of peoples ideas of what Home is to them, to us, and our feelings towards it. Currently forced indoors, I deeply wonder how our current unprecedented situation would effect the outcomes of the project if done at a later date. Will ideas of home change forever? Will those in more developed and privileged countries start to understand the notion of displacement? Could this have a positive effect on anti-migrant & refugee rhetoric?
In mind of the idea that 'No wo/man is an Island', below is the original information on Homecoming.
'Homecoming' is a self directed multi layered participatory project using community engagement, film, sound and paint for cross-cultural exchanges around identity, home, belonging and displacement. Developed in multiple locations including London, Marlow, Hull and Brighton, Homecoming intends to help push the boundaries of participatory practice by presenting artwork/s influenced by the exchange between low-engaged, under-represented, vulnerable and ethnic minority groups and the general public.
The main aims of the project was to develop alternative ways of engagement through intense R&D (research & development) stages in order to create a more sustainable, accessible and immersive methodology for Estabraks unique LPP ( Live Projection Painting) practice, developing the process further with direct audience participation.
*LPP is a process Estabrak co-creted in 2011 that literally paints a film to life, live.
The R&D Stages were heavily influenced by public facing workshops and processes which were intended as both emotive and artistic response to the rise in recent anti-migrant/other rhetoric through creating a participatory process exploring displacement and othering. Questioning ‘What does home mean & what would it feel like to never be able to access ours again?’
“As someone of refugee background, with both dyslexia and an auto immune disorder, I wanted to examine how these othered realities can also relate to one and other and the idea of identity & home.” Estabrak 2019
The project evolved into four parts.
Homecoming; Installation using running water and projection (derived from Estabraks LPP and underwater practices)
Homecoming; A Placeless Place; Social Experiment (Participatory installation/social experiment for all ages and abilities)
Homecoming 33; A 33hour Participatory LPP Performance (Public facing performance using LPP techniques and community lead engagement)
Homecoming Workshops; Multi - Sensory 1/2 day Socially Engaged workshops for Adults inviting experimentation, documentation, dialogue and feedback.
Homecoming; Workshops. Using non sight related tools to engage and test conditioned methods of visual storytelling.
Homecoming; Workshops. Using sound and water to visualise the invisibility of sound to engage the senses and discuss environmental influences in daily life.