Description:

‘A Place Called Home’ is a publication aimed to address the lack of globalised recognition and documentation of the COVID-19 lockdowns within Aotearoa. The intention behind the project is to depict the hardships and the varying degrees of coping mechanisms used during the quarantine periods and how these impacted a variety of 18-25 year old demographic within the Upper North Island region. As a global recognition and restriction of the pandemic remains prominent, Aotearoa’s reflection of this time period had hardly been gazed at in narrative form due to its shortened longevity in contrast to many Nations from around the globe. Thus, the intention is to bring light to those individuals who have braved through this time period and tell their stories, focusing predominantly on the mental wellness side of the narrative. During this process, three individuals were selected for an open-ended qualitative interviewing process. Their stories were developed into a conversational dialogue with self-reflections, including my own experience.

By exploring the ‘My House is on Fire and I can’t get out’ notion, the intent of the publication became a metaphorical indulgence in the process of image-making. Focussing on a combination of abstract expressionism and satirical commentary, multiple mediums such as Charcoal, Oil Pastel and Fine-tip Pens were used as a means of visualising the breadth of diction supplied by the participants. The primary intention of the publication is to create a relatable body of work that can be shared within a young adult community as a reflective monologue that holistically highlights the uncertainties, and hardship and depicts emotive outputs felt during this time period — both in an abstracted visual manner along with personal written context.