long journey home
Home is a large word. Universal and individual at once. A word that speaks of belonging and longing.
People have been migrating since thousands of years, but in an ever faster globalizing world, cultural identity and the definition of home become increasingly complex and difficult to decipher. In the digital age, cultural diversity not only opens borders and creates opportunity; it also creates ambiguity and fear. To find a shared sense of belonging requires genuine interest in one another, and an interest that goes beyond what we already know.
I am biracial. My father was born in Gulangyu, Xiamen, in the Fujian province of China, with strong ties to Taiwan. My mother was born in a small village outside Derby, in northern England. When she was a girl, a gypsy read her hand and told her she would marry a dark stranger and go on a long journey across the sea. She did. Despite their cultural differences, rare at that time, my parents were married for 60 years. Home for each of them meant something different.
Home for me, is between east and west. A place beyond the obvious. A place that embraces difference, whilst giving space to what is essentially human.
Through my work as an artist; through observation of landscape, plants, trees and finally the odd bundle of things we know as possessions, I try to examine what it is that gives us a sense of belonging. I am interested in the relationships we create with what we see, how we belong to our story and how our story belongs to us. Regardless of origin, I hope to invite the viewer to engage and further their own sense of being and belonging.
In a world of complex differences, I am interested in what brings us together, rather than what divides us.
It is a slow journey.
Conversation with Alexis Williams
Catalogue available soon