Home Is...

In 2002, the last year of my Bachelor of Contemporary Arts, I undertook a subject called Art & Community. The idea behind the subject was to have students from all the majors (Visual Arts - me, Media Arts, Dance & Drama) put their heads together and come up with a collaborative project which involved the community (you'd never guess from the name of the subject hey?).

I came up with an idea for a book, a book called 'Home Is...'. As you turned each page you would find an image and some words about what 'home' was to someone we had interviewed. The image would be a drawing or a photograph provided by the interviewee, and the words were their perspective of what 'home' is.

We interviewed a politician, a middle class family, two homeless men, some prisoners, members of an Aboriginal community, one of Australia's wealthiest men, two girls who had overcome drug addiction and a variety of other Victorians.

The result was fascinating. The images provided were beautiful. And the people who made this book were not polished 'artists'.

I often think of 'Home Is...' and remember the reaction from those that read it. Some pages made people laugh, others made people cry.

I think it's the type of project I need to finish, even if it is 6 years later. Perhaps its time to make 'Home Is...' electronic and allow people from all over the globe to contribute. It would make for a fascinating read and an interesting time waster. If it were to become big enough, any profits could be donated to charity.

C x