What does home mean to you?
Columbia students asked themselves this question in preparation for the “Colors of Home” exhibition at the Hokin Gallery, exploring a range of art styles to showcase what home means to them.
The exhibition, which included photographs, poems and handmade paper from 13 students, opened Thursday, Sept. 24.
“Home means different things for different people,” said Ana Lara, a graduate student studying in the strategic communication program. “‘Colors of Home’ is about what home feels like to students.”
The exhibition was inspired by an Instagram post from Zayden German, a senior photography major. The post that included images of his family and Chicago was captioned, “Colors of Home.”
German’s work is depicted through “natural landscapes, images of family, images of my sister’s cats, and an image of a street sign of my neighborhood,” he said.
Growing up in a small town in Colorado, German reflected on how moving to Chicago was a “big jump” for him. Through capturing Chicago landscapes, he said he was able to show how home can shift from place to place.
“It can be your friends in Chicago, but it can also be your family back at home,” German said.
Carley Brown, an interdisciplinary major focused on craft and culture who graduated in May, collaborated with Lara to share their stained glass art, which they have been making for five years.
Milkweed is a recurring theme in their art, a plant, and a nickname their late father gave them in childhood. The work they presented was three pieces of stained glass with a green background and milkweeds throughout.
“This is my third or fourth piece using milkweed in it. It is just something I keep coming back to,” Brown said.
For Lara, “home is more literal, and it is more like a place.”
She considered herself a “realism artist.” A lover of architecture, she presented her piece “Statue of Matter” as a more abstract perspective of what architecture means beyond drawings and pictures of buildings.
“This work explores what the future of architecture could look like and how it can be influenced by nature,” Lara said.
Using handmade paper, she created a piece that fades from colors of the sky and sun to grass and flowers.
Desiree Payne, a first-year animation and computer graphics major, said the gallery reminded them of their high school gallery.
“The gallery would often have events held in that space where people could put up their art, and this feels like that,” Payne said.
Devin Schwieters, a senior film and television major, said the gallery was very personal and unique.
“The mediums are so different, but you can still feel that intimacy and pride,” Schwieters said.
“Colors of Home” will be at the Hokin Gallery until Nov. 13.
Copy edited by Camila Verzino
