Home is ________

What is home? How do we shape who we are based on our environment? Home Is_____  was  a collective exhibition in Paris at Le Pavé D’Orsay gallery featuring six female artists exploring the themes of identity and home. Music workshops, poetry, dance and café were shared on the rug throughout the week. Elvire CM , Hope Curran , Kimia Pashinan, Marissa Wu, Rebecca Arthur, and Wen Li addressed these questions through photography, poetry, essays, paintings, and other mediums. We represented France, the United States, Iran, and China, looking for answers to the universal need for belonging. This was a space for rest, laughter, music and song, poetry, connection and creation. Beyond the white walls of the gallery, this space was made alive by those who filled it. Memories are stored within our art. Memories are made daily out of the many curated moments. The nations gathered in the gallery. I would sit daily and chat with friends on the rug. I was constantly interrupted by unexpected visitors. Our visitors included babies, dogs, nannies, gallerists, students, Americans, artists from all backgrounds, parents, friends, Fulbright fellows, musicians, shop owners and anyone who was curious enough to come inside.

EMBRACE INTERRUPTION 

EMBRACE INTERDISCIPLINARITY

EMBRACE ONE ANOTHER

Le Foyer Local

Through a series of local living room installations in Paris spanning from 2018-2020 I was able to conduct artistic, sociological and poetic research. Meetings with students, professors, friends and even ambassadors, created profound experiences through simple elements: cookies, a carpet, a typewriter, a table and the presence of a living artist. The center piece has been an Iranian rug found thrown out on the street in Paris that serves as a metaphor for the refugee crisis and vessel for conversation and community. It comes from the Kashan region and brings vibrant color and life into the space, enhancing the atmosphere. Like the rug, many asylum seekers from middle eastern countries like Iran have been left out on the streets of Paris. Their vibrant personalities and skills, when welcomed bring forth life and diversity to our community. Amidst the refugee crisis, globalization, climate change and culture wars the rug represents redemption, welcome and rest. 

Send Me Home

Humanity is marked by movement.  We leave and those watch those we love, leave us. Home is constantly changing as time passes. I am from California, live in Paris, have moved multiple times and constantly change my mailing address. In a world of media and technology, the postal system slows us down and allows us to send tangible pieces of ourselves to others. I invite you to join me in this search for home by making visible your thoughts and feelings of home and sending them around the world! 

Instructions: 

Address a postcard to a person or place you consider home. 

Draw a picture, write a poem or share your definition of “home” in the space. 

Place finished post card in the bottom drawer and I will send it to your home, anywhere in the world!

Cookies: La Recette de ma mère

Cookies are ephemeral sculptures, and the crumbs are always worth it. Crumbs are evidence of conversation and shared experience.  Hospitality can be a radical act of rebellion against the systems and stereotypes of the world. I find food the simplest and most effective way to gather people. I became known as the “cookie artist” through the installation series Le Foyer Local/ The Local Living Room.  I create a living room in public spaces, galleries and schools and serve my mother’s chocolate chip cookies to invite the local community to tell their stories and connect. Through traveling and crossing borders I have learned home is so much more than a house or place but also a feeling, community and experience.

A wedding Feast

The rug traversed the Ocean during pandemic to arrive in Martinez, California. Brought up the coast and into the Redwoods for a wedding feast. The story continues in a new context, a new culture, a new celebration.

Thank you Alyssa & Santiago for encouraging me to bring my rug “home”! It became a grounding point for guests throughout the day and was reunited with Elaine: the original artist who insisted I pick the rug up off the streets of Paris in 2017.