[Re]constructing Home

On View May 14 - July 2, 2021

The inaugural exhibition at the Reeves House Visual Arts Center, [Re]constructing Home, examines one of the most basic social concepts by which individuals define themselves in relation to others: “home.” After more than a year of being confined to our homes during the pandemic, we have all had ample opportunity to explore the profound impact of the spaces we inhabit.

Our homes have been reconstructed in unexpected ways in order to acclimate to a new world that compressed our expansive lives into tiny interiors. Our homes were suddenly tasked with being containers for our entire lives: they became our offices, our kids’ school, our gyms, and our art studios. The theme also references the long history of the Reeves House as a family home, as well as its recent reconstruction into a new Visual Arts Center. And lastly, it references the creation of a new warm and inviting Home for our community to see and experience a wide variety of visual arts.

[Re]constructing Home features artwork from twenty local, regional, and national artists who explore the elusive concept of home in a variety of media - from keys cast in resin to armchairs made out of paper. As artists take us along on their personal journeys to locate a home, some find it in a physically constructed space, while others only seem able to access it as an abstract concept, and some fail to find it at all. We are left with more questions than answers: is home a physical space? A feeling? A person? A memory?

Whether idealistically imagined, fondly remembered, or bitterly abandoned, all of the artists’ interpretations depict home as a space that eludes possession and exists beyond time - materially temporary, but emotionally eternal.

Viewers can explore these ideas and more in three thematic areas:
1. [Re]Calling: Home as defined by memories and their inherent unreliability.
2. [Re]Coloring: Home as defined by our present selves reimagining or recoloring narratives of our past.
3. [Re]Moving: Home as defined by a space that we no longer occupy or possess, whether voluntarily or forced.

A variety of interactive elements are woven throughout [Re]constructing Home to encourage the viewer to find their own way home, to wherever or whatever that may be. In its denial of passive viewing and demand for active engagement, [Re]constructing Home is an exhibition that can only truly be appreciated in person, so that you can hear the conversation among the artworks that reveal the full story.

Featured Artists: Ashton Bird (Atlanta, GA); Eugene V. Byrd III (Atlanta, GA); Elan Cadiz (Harlem, NY); In Kyoung Chun (Atlanta, GA); Nicki Crock (Columbus, Ohio); Amber Eckersley (Greenville, SC); Adam Eddy (Charleston, SC); Sara Farrington (Lake City, SC); Honor Bowman Hall (Savannah, GA); Chase King (Woodstock, GA); Lori Larusso (Louisville, KY); Macey Ley (Atlanta, GA); William Mize (Asheville, NC); Katie Darby Slater (Melbourne, FL); Kim Bates (Woodstock, GA); Karen Beedle (Woodstock, GA)