Goals

I would like to accomplish two major projects for this class, the first is possibly in need of fine-tuning, and the second is to be completed after the course has ended (but I would like to explore possible resolutions or additional means of realizing my concept). For my first project, I would like to create a series of holographic images centered on the multiplicity of personalities and identities that people can occupy when they are in one “location” vs. another (one country vs. another, one social group vs. another, culture and so forth) using myself as a point of reference. I would like to create extremely subtle changes to the transforming figure while completely altering the background from one image to the other. This series of works will encompass an array of previous themes in my work from the social and political interactions of homosexuality, to the ever-present search for “Home” (this is only one idea that I have been thinking about for quite a while but am not sure if it is too obvious of a solution).
The second project I would like to complete cannot be completed until after the course because it will take place in Israel (I am leaving for Israel the day after the class). For this project, I am interested in returning to previous homes that I have inhabited while living in Israel (this project will later be extended to other homes internationally) and photographing portraits of those currently living in what were previously my childhood homes. This series of photographs is intended both as a series of questions (“what constitutes ‘home’?”, “What occurs to the notion of ‘home’ when it is no longer yours?”, “Who has the right to call a certain patch of land their home?”), as well as a personal meditation on was has been lost, gained, transformed, made better or worse by my own exodus from these patches of my childhood. There also exists a clear parallel between personal history and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. What draws me to this particular project is that I am not entirely certain what to expect, especially from those currently living in these homes. I guess my main interest for this class is to further develop these ideas, as well as come up with new ideas/drafts to be completed both in the studio and while I’m in Israel.