LAMB is pleased to present Back Home, a group exhibition investigating the subject of the home as a physical and metaphysical place of return. Taking as a conceptual framework two literary works, Homer’s Odyssey and Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing, the exhibition addresses the trajectory to return Home as the journey of life, guided by this point of departure and arrival upon which the cycle closes. The Odyssey exemplifies an epic quest for arrival, which the hero pursues relentlessly whilst being met with the whims of Gods trying his volition to find respite. In more contemporary terms, Homegoing speaks to the larger consequences of displacement, felt across generations through the lives of a family uprooted from West Africa in the 1700’s. The novel traces the story of descendants whose conditions remain intrinsically linked to the fatalities of their ancestors. Drawing parallels to these universal narratives, the work of each of the eight presented artists distinctly interpret notions of longing and belonging rooted in their individual experiences of such. Minoru Nomata’s (b.1955, Japan) Far Sights depicts a lighthouse, guiding travellers to safer shores, announcing ones’ return to solid land. Nomata’s imaginary constructions are often products of dreams, revealing images of idealized spaces of architectural grandeur, which in their realism, elusively blur the boundaries between the fictional and the factual - much like the events recounted in Homer’s epic poem. André Ricardo (b. 1985, Brazil) and Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato (b. 1900 - d. 1995, Brazil) investigate the formal qualities of the home, through their depictions of facades and village scenes. Ricardo’s works present the architecture of popular homes found in the north-eastern region of Brazil. The houses embody a uniquely Brazilian hybrid construction, composed of Portuguese colonial Ishmael Randal Weeks Código atemporal #81, 2022 Grouts, soils, wood and copper 40 x 33 x 10 cm influence, as well as indigenous and afro-descent heritage. The geometric structures form an abstract backdrop alongside which figurative elements may appear, carrying symbolic and ludic characteristics. Ricardo's choice of the egg tempera technique references the European traditions of religious painting, a narrative which he appropriates to engage in a new discourse of colonial reckoning. Lorenzato’s houses contemplatively depict rural Brazilian villages, almost idyllic in their naiveté. In contrast to this idealized representation of homes, Lorenzato’s labour of sustenance was wall plastering. The artist travelled extensively through Europe, working on rebuilding shelled cities after the world wars. Upon his return to Brazil, Lorenzato’s oeuvre continued to manifest a constant interest in the subject of the home and of daily life in his surroundings, as though the repeated recording of the banalities of life evoked a sense of peace and arrival. Objects are also vessels of memories, amulets revealing clues of a past heritage. In her works Alek O. (b. 1981, Argentina) has unravelled the fabric used for furniture upholstery in her home, until the textiles were reduced to individual threads. She reweaves the threads into new two-dimensional compositions, dramatically departing from their original form yet remaining imbued with imprints of their previous use. Alek O. considers this metamorphosis of elements an example of the cyclical nature of existence but also invites us to reconsider the place of objects that accompany one through it. Similarly, Bronwyn Katz’s (b. 1993, South Africa) bedsprings reflect the transcending quality of a found object, which carries with it a material past into a new formal interpretation of the mass. A nostalgia and personal history found in Katz’s work is also recalled in Heidi Bucher’s (b.1926 - d.1993, Switzerland) ‘skinnings’. Bucher eternalizes spaces through a technique which transfers minute details of textures and volumes onto latex. Bucher’s mouldings are imbued with the memories held within the environment she records, but also suggest a resistance to the domesticity expected of her gender. Tenzing Dakpa’s (b. 1985, India) hotel series capture moments in his family’s hotel in India, the country to which his ancestors migrated from Tibet. Dakpa's gaze seeks to reveal the tensions held within a place which simultaneously represents the impermanence experienced by passing strangers, whilst bearing a grounding importance for the artist’s family as their home and source of income. Ishmael Randall Weeks’ (b. 1976, Peru) Códigos Atemporales expose layers of materials which recount stories of the artist's encounters with people and places. By encapsulating such layers in concrete, the artist crystallizes experiences, like archaeological repositories, making up visual diaries of a journey of anthropological and urban discovery. This familiar narrative has existed throughout the world, across regions and time. The journey in the reach of home as a place of respite remains a prevalent contemporary story. From the plight of displaced people, to the incessant development of urban-landscapes, which bring us to question the shifting paradigms of the place we call home.
