HOME
Curator: Fiona Cashell
What does it mean to call a place home? How does the act of moving—leaving, arriving, migrating—shape a person? When we think of our relationship to place, there are many complex experiences to consider, and many questions to ask. Perhaps the thread that connects us all, is the desire to belong.
In both philosophical and Buddhist thought, impermanence speaks of the transient nature of all things—the inevitability of change, movement, and transformation. This concept can resonate deeply when we find ourselves navigating new territories; when caught between the familiar and the unknown, or when searching for stability in flux, or even searching for flux in fixed stability.
The inertia of not changing creates a tension between wanting to shift direction and being unable to make a move. Home offers safety and protection from the cold, unless home is the cold, then home becomes a prison.
The tension between longing to stay and the pull to explore – between holding onto what we know or embracing the unknown — unable to leave / unable to stay.
To seek to belong is to map the self. We position and negotiate our identities within landscapes, environments, and place. This experience is universal, transcending cultures, geographies, borders and histories. It compels us to ask: What is home? How does it manifest —as a place, a person, an object, a phrase, a poem, or even as a memory?
We invite submissions that explore these themes through:
- Narrative inquiry
- Documentative, explorative, or speculative approaches
- Interdisciplinary practice
- Conceptual, abstract, or experimental processes
We are particularly interested in works that engage with concepts relating to:
- Belonging
- Home (what is home, its meaning, its representation)
- Place, landscape, and environment
- Borders and liminal spaces
- Mapping the self and identity in flux
- Navigating the unknown or unfamiliar
Deadline for Submission of Applications: Saturday, April 26 at 11:59pm CST
- Notification of Acceptance: Will go out by email on Sunday, May 11, 2025
- Delivery of work to ARC: Thursday & Friday, May 29-30, 2-6pm; Sat, May 31, 12-4pm
- Pick-Up Work at Gallery: Sat, June 28, 2:30-4pm
- Shipped Work Return Date: Week of June 29
- *Pre-Paid FedEx or UPS return label is required
- *Do not use the U.S. Postal Service
About the Curator: Fiona Cashell
Fiona Naomi Cashell (b. Dublin, Ireland, 1981) is a lens-based interdisciplinary artist using digital, material and hybrid practices to explore the boundaries and artistic use of performative and documentative style moving image works, photography, text, textile and print.
Growing up in a working-class south Dublin suburb and emigrating multiple times has profoundly affected Fiona's creative sensibility and interests in place. As a result, work created is usually situational in context – utilising the immediate environment and drawing from personal narratives, experiences and histories that correlate or draw connections between the self, memory, attachment, distance, impermanence, otherness, landscape and place. Other interests intersecting with or informing her practice include slow cinema, poetry, flora and fauna and wilded "lived" spaces, chance, philosophy, psychology and cultural studies.
Fiona is a professional member of the Teaching Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland, and serves as an advisory board member for SAH Journal (Ireland). She exhibits widely, and her work has been shown in institutions such as Anthology Film Archives, New York; West African Research Center, Senegal; Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Ireland and CICA Art Museum, Korea.
Fiona holds an MFA in Studio Art from Stony Brook University, New York, and a BDes (Hons) in Visual Communication from MTU, Cork. She is also a graduate of the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program.
Opening Reception, Friday, June 6, 5:00-8:00pm
- Exhibition dates: June 5 - 27, 2024
- Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
