Living Home

30.5” x 23”, 58.5” x 44”

Archival pigment print

STATEMENT

Living Home centers on the small farming community of Tallangatta Valley, my childhood home in Australia. My identity is deeply rooted in this space as well as in the relationships among the inhabitants of this community. Throughout my work I consider the different ways communities navigate the spaces they occupy, exploring the relationship between land, marginally built environment, and people. My interest revolves around the narratives of communities like Tallangatta Valley, as they capture both personal and objective currents of change, revealing the presence of transformative forces in traditional forms of life, particularly aspects of cultural mythology associated with rural life. Rural communities are small, and are often dictated to by larger and distant political and cultural agencies. The narratives of these communities unearth a significant juxtaposition of past and present, traditional and modern, local and global. I explore the potential for meaningful connections to both the land we inhabit and the experiential learning attainable through a greater connection to each other and the spaces we occupy. Living Home shares a view of my history; a personal archive that is embedded in memory.

SOLUTION

The Tallangatta Valley community is a collection of individuals possessing knowledge and skills that are valuable to understanding and creating a healthy collaboration with each other and our environment. Agriculture in Tallangatta Valley is centered on family-run farming. This community, like many others in the area, relies on the land to nurture their livelihoods. In rural and remote areas, community involvement is essential. It is this connectedness to both the land and each other that is an integral element to the solution.