“Home and Away” by Samina Mishra, Renu S. Iver, Mrityunjoy Chatterjee

Title:

Home and Away

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):

Symposium:

ISEA2004: 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art
More artworks from ISEA2004:

Venue(s):

The Spectrum , Montreal , Canada

Artist Statement:

Home and Away is an audio-visual document exploring the world of British Asian children. Home, for them, is a unique combination of London’s physical space and the Indian subcontinent’s culture. If London is home, it is still distant and away. And if the subcontinent is away, it is still home to much of what makes up their identity.

Home and Away is a multi-layered work exploring the dynamics of defining one’s identity. The children in Home and Away are second and third generation British Asians from families that traveled to Britain from across the Indian subcontinent: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. An unfamiliar land was filled slowly with the familiar: objects, sounds, smells. For the first generation, it may have been easy to identify themselves as the Indian diaspora, with a comfortable division between a home left behind and a new home, between a nostalgic past and a pragmatic present. But for the children of that generation, this is the only home they have ever known – a unique combination of London’s physical space and the subcontinent’s culture.

Home and Away is made up of digitally produced panels which integrate large single images, as well as selected strips from contact sheets with text containing excerpts of interviews and the author’s narrative. The exhibit is bound together by a soundtrack using voice, music and sound effects. In one corner, a computer displays an HTML presentation which combines all the elements of the exhibition but is a stand-atone work that allows the viewer interactive freedom.