Sense(s) of HOME
James Arnaut
Master of Architecture (Urban Transformation) | Western Sydney University
“Home evokes an intrinsic emotion that's sculpted by Country. Providing potent memories and sensations of person, place, past and present.”
MATERIALS: clay + timber + beeswax
Artist Statement
The diverse Australian landscape has provided a great understanding of COUNTRY. Through a process of exploration and discovery, a spirited idea of HOME has formulated. Where HOME is intrinsic and metaphysical, moving with you. Ever changing by the hands and minds that contribute to its formulation. We share HOME, in our collective experience of COUNTRY as a facilitator to the senses.
The visitors are invited to activate their senses and share my HOME by picking up the belonging. Visitors discover an array of memories housed within. Their formation changes day by day with a rotation in prominence, creating a noise mimicking the sounds of cicadas or summer rain. This belonging attempt to elicit joy and a sense of playfulness towards understanding and experiencing COUNTRY. Much like the formulative memories of people, place, past and present that have sculpted its form.
Synopsis
HOME will continue to be defined differently as I grow, experience and learn, as it has leading up to today. Ultimately, exploration and discovery have always recirculated within my thinking of HOME and the potent emotion that it can evoke within. Falling somewhere between the tangible and intangible, where we act as the medium. Phenomenalism is defined simply as “objects are only perceivable through sensations and that their existence cannot be justified independently”.
I believe our experience of COUNTRY and HOME is explained in a similar way. Not defining a place but an experience of HOME which is multifaceted and dynamic. It’s a synthesis of senses. A deeply personal accumulation of memories and feelings. Where our love for the ‘belongings’ that define us, creates an emotional relation to our spirit of HOME.
To me that love is stored in the memories that all my belongings hold. I am reminded of my Grandparents place and mostly the COUNTRY that surrounds it. Aswell as days with friends filled with laughs and joy. Or the numerous campsites where we have learned and yarned far into the night. Discovering new things about the natural world and understanding the systems and forces at play. COUNTRY has been the facilitator of these memories. Providing me, my friends and family the means to connect and feel free. I belong with those memories, as does everyone involved. We share the senses that deepen our connection to each other and COUNTRY. These senses will forever feel like HOME. It is not stagnant but sculpts and moulds as we grow, moving with us.
