Satomi Shirai - Home and Home
Walls with windows and doors form the house,
but the empty space within it is the essence of the house.
- from The Uses of Not, Lao Tse
My work investigates what constitutes the concept of home, as an immigrant who chose to live in New York. Tangibility versus intangibility are brought up and added to the discussion. How do we assess or assume home?
My relocation to New York is not about overcoming a culture that is distinct, but encountering and understanding cultural disparity and similarity. Living in NYC highlights the intangible aspects of cultures today that include language, myth, mind-sets, daily customs, social class issues, and identity.
I am bringing up positions of custom, holiday, architecture, dress, food, location, and home design as a means to explore how culture is being inter-mixed or is remaining unchanged at a microcosmic level, and how national identity and sensibility are maintained or relinquished through living in a cross-cultural city life. The more understanding of cultural contrasts I have, the more I feel closer to the U.S, and so my space in New York is psychologically being expanded. I am also working with an expanding group of subjects to further the discussion in groups of other racial, age and socioeconomic groups to gather more inclusive information.
All images © Satomi Shirai
