HOME: A Photographic Journey into Identity, Place, and Belonging

The Collective Community Arts Center

201 N. Public Road, Lafayette, CO 80026

January 17–March 17, 2023

Admission: free

Review by Maggie Sava

“My body is my home,” writes Boulder-based artist Tanja London in her statement for HOME: A Photographic Journey into Identity, Place, and Belonging, the current exhibition at Lafayette’s The Collective Community Arts Center. “I am embodied within a vast network of beings, places, and timelines. What goes around—comes around.” [1]

An installation view of the exhibition *Home: A Photographic Journey into Identity, Place, and Belonging* at The Collective Community Arts Center. Image by *DARIA*.

London’s words demonstrate how broad and encompassing the notion of “home” really is in this exhibition—it is objects, landscapes, people, memories, and more. Composed of photographs selected by the City of Lafayette’s Arts & Cultural Resources Department from an open call for art in which Colorado-based artists were invited to submit three works showing “‘who is home,’ ‘what is home,’ and ‘where is home,’” the show tackles the contrarian notions of home as both universal and specific; elastic and concrete. [2]

Three works by Anastasia Kreigler, from left to right: *Mama Niño*; *Ete Cato*; and *El Jardin*, digital pigment prints. Image by *DARIA*.

HOME contains thirty-eight photographs from thirteen contributors, representing artists at different stages in their careers and with varying levels of experience. [3] The inclusive ethos behind the curation is important for a city government art organization centered on fostering community through participation in the arts and allowing for an intriguing diversity in theme, style, technique, and approach. [4]

Anastasia Kreigler, *El Jardin*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

Anastasia Kreigler, *Ete Cato*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

Anastasia Kreigler is the only artist in the show to explore a domestic interior space as it relates to the notion of home, which she does in a series of photographs about her partner Hector’s familial house in El Salvador. Ete Cato shows the living room at his great aunt Mama Niño’s house, where he was raised until the age of five when his mother moved him to the United States. He subsequently returned on annual visits to see his aunt until her death. On the wall of the room hangs Hector’s childhood photo. In contrast, a walker pokes out in the left-side foreground and a cane sits beyond the bedroom doorway—physical reminders of how his aging aunt moved through this space.

Just off center hangs a mirror reflecting an empty chair—an indication of absence and a reference to the passing of Mama Niño. The room becomes a container for memory, holding objects representing the person who used to inhabit it. This photograph and its accompanying story seem to ask: How can you continue cultivating a sense of a cultural and familial home in the wake of losing the very person who embodied those ideas for you?

Ellen O’Donnell, *Hands on the Wheels*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

Ellen O’Donnell, *Belonging to the Now*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

Ellen O’Donnell’s photographs also address the struggle with one’s sense of belonging, yet she explores the challenges of not having a singular, specific place that is home. Rather than looking into a living room interior as Kreigler does, O’Donnell’s Hands on the Wheels and Belonging to the Now show a view of her car’s front seat through the driver-side window. In her artist’s statement, O’Donnell describes herself as a nomad and writes that her car is her home. Her reflection in the car window in her selfie-style portraits suggest an ephemeral physical presence, as one might feel when frequently relocating or traveling from place to place.

Ellen O’Donnell, *Home as History, Lafayette*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

In the background of her reflection, O’Donnell captures a public mural by Jessica Manzanares, Through Our Eyes (2022), installed across the street from The Collective Community Arts Center. In this permanent piece of public art, Manzanares explores the history of Lafayette through family portraits of Latinx families who have long lived in the city, sharing moments of joy and heritage that have lasted despite histories of discrimination or erasure. [5] Although the mural itself is not a part of HOME, it speaks to how family memories play an essential role in private and collective notions of place, centering people who have played an important role in Lafayette’s legacy despite their stories being overlooked.

By using the portraits in Through Our Eyes to capture and represent the city rather than perhaps a recognizable building or sign, O’Donnell seems to assert how fundamental their presence is to the local physical and social landscape. Simultaneously, she conveys her affinity with the mural's affirmation of community and belonging. As she writes in her statement, “You belong when you are physically present at a certain place at a certain time, and when you leave that place, you no longer belong in a traditional sense. But, the memory of that time and place you carry with you belongs to you forever.” [6]

Steven McBride, *Standing Together*, black and white photograph. Image by *DARIA*.

One of the most prominent overarching themes in HOME is a connection to the natural landscape, as shown in Steven McBride’s reverent yet playful forest scenes. While McBride refers to them as “environmental (self) portraits,” the human figure is not the focal point of these photographs. [7] Rather, McBride camouflages his body in the scenes. In Standing Together, the dark, curving lines of the branches coming off one tree contrast with the brighter, straight lines of the other trees. As they guide your eyes throughout the photograph, they distract you from McBride’s disembodied legs resting at the top of the tree. McBridge is at the same time an extension of the forest and overtaken by it, showing how the flora is as awe-inducing as it is familiar.

Tanja London, *slaughtering …*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

Relationships with nature also inform Tanya London’s slaughtering …, one of the show’s most challenging interpretations of home. The red-saturated photo shows a close-up of an unidentified animal's body part. It is hard to clearly see what is in the picture besides fur though the evocative color suggests blood, and the shapes in the background, just out of focus, appear to be viscera. The movement created by the undulating lines of the animal’s fur mixed with the loud red resembles an abstract composition, making the slaughter both graphic and vague.

Tanja London, *me…the OMNIVORE*, digital pigment print. Image by *DARIA*.

London’s contributions to HOME examine our relationship with the animals who share a habitat with us, building a kinship that extends to non-human life. In this photograph, she deals with the ethical concerns of consuming meat for health reasons after living thirty years as a vegetarian. The result is a complicated tie between the idea of home and the violence that exists with the natural cycles of life, death, and nourishment.

The true strength of HOME is its variety. Though there are the throughlines of place, identity, and belonging throughout the gallery, the thirteen artists included in the show have distinctive narrative and aesthetic interpretations of those concepts. As a result, there is something for almost everyone, and visitors are bound to find at least one piece that will resonate with them or expand their understanding of home.

A view of works in the exhibition *Home: A Photographic Journey into Identity, Place, and Belonging* at The Collective Community Arts Center. Image by *DARIA*.

With a goal to build experiences that are fitting for all ages, and in which everyone feels welcome and invited into the art space, the Lafayette Arts & Cultural Resources staff have created multiple opportunities for participation and engagement in their exhibition. Interspersed through the gallery are two interactive stations inviting visitors to respond to the prompts, “Who, What, Where is home?/Quien, que, y donde llamas casa?” and “Home is not home without…/Un hogar no es hogar sin…” Visitors post their answers on the board for others to read. They also offer take-home art kits, customized for each exhibition (for this one, a collage project), and a curated reading list with titles available at the Lafayette Public Library.

To accompany the show, The Collective Community Arts Center is planning a poetry reading with Lafayette’s first Poet Laureate, ZBass Speaks, on Sunday, March 17, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Maggie Sava (she/her) is a writer based in Denver, Colorado. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History and English, Creative Writing from the University of Denver and a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London.

[1] Tanja London, artist’s statement.

[2] From The Collective Community Arts Center’s Facebook page. Accessed January 19, 2024: www.facebook.com/events/3705666096341608/?ref=newsfeed.

[3] All the works on display are for sale. The price is included on the label for each photograph with the artist’s email address for interested buyers.

[4] Madelaine Vargas, the Program Manager for the City of Lafayette Arts & Cultural Resources Department, explained that their exhibition team sought to keep the display of the photographs as uniform as possible by providing printing assistance to those who requested it. They also hung the photographs by wires and hanging rods rather than asking all the artists to pay to have their works framed.

[5] Sophia Moncaleano, “Lafayette artist installs mural celebrating Spanish heritage of community members,” Colorado Hometown Weekly, June 22, 2021, accessed January 19, 2024: www.coloradohometownweekly.com/2021/06/22/lafayette-artist-installs-mural-celebrating-spanish-heritage-of-community-members/.

[6] Ellen O’Donnell, artist’s statement.

[7] Steven McBride, artist’s statement.