At this time of heightened national specificity, while we are compelled to reconsider the meaning of home and belonging, the exhibition Homecoming / Eventually functions as a proposition to engage, through visual art, with the contention of homecoming particularly from the geographic perspective of Southeast Asia to which a wave of ‘homecomings’ has returned millions of overseas nationals. Incidental to its interpretation as a celebratory event of returning from abroad, homecoming connotes not only physical movement but also the conceptual trajectory towards the place of origin, which is held as the return destination, culturally and emotionally. Considered within the geography and topography of memory, Homecoming/Eventually questions the meaning of home as a locality and its social relevance in relation to its return. What is home? Where is home? Is it a real or imagined place? To address these inquiries into Southeast Asian trajectories, Homecoming/Eventually presents new and ongoing works by two art practitioners from Thailand and the Philippines, Nontawat Numbenchapol and Ryan Villamael. Through mixed media, video works, and photography installations, the artists investigate the significance of home and return, engaging with the physicality of the ‘terrain’ as subjective locality of belonging.
April 2021
