HOMELAND INSECURITY

Abstract

Homeland Insecurity is a project born out of a life’s worth of marginalization, internalized racism, and forced assimilation. It presents common experiences and emotions that are located between cultures, questioning what it means to inhabit a homeland that exists as a hybrid mental space. As I progress through life, my parents’ culture—my heritage—becomes more and more distant, yet like many non-white children of immigrants, I will continue to carry it in my face as a physical reminder of a life I do not know. Influenced by acculturation theory, my work explores this culture that never quite belonged to me to begin with—yet is still mine to lose. Through absence or erasure as visual motifs, I impart a sense of cultural displacement. While the experiences presented are rooted in my own, I attempt to assuage others with homeland insecurities, establishing commonalities throughout this identity.