The futile process of building home on foreign land

 

Magda Petmeza

Tufts University

 

The futile process of building comfort on foreign land is a project that incorporates performance, sculpture and video. For this project, I explore  my difficulty in finding a sense of belonging in the US as a first generation immigrant and the first in my family to immigrate from Greece to the US. During my stay in the US, I was never able to rid myself of the ever-present feeling that I was not at home. Trying to find a sense of home in a place that is temporary seems impossible. This project replicates these constant efforts to feel at home. 

By spending weeks building clay bricks, I mimic the similarly laborious and mentally-straining process of trying to belong. Through this process, the internal conflict I experience is materialized and acquires physical shape. I perform the stacking of bricks into a home-like structure around me that is seemingly sturdy. However, the handmade bricks don’t lay flat and therefore create a structure that could collapse any minute. The performance itself is projected onto the structure in a loop to reflect the repetition of labor in an endless cycle that has no discernable beginning or end.