Curator

Vivienne Luo Wang

Contributing Artists

Nancy Valladarez, Vivienne Luo Wang, Liz Vitlin

Exhibition Statement as Preserved in the SUGS/SITE Archives:

In Search of a Homeland presents a collection of work that evokes nostalgia, feelings of displacement, and stroies of bygone times. Utilizing symbols of their respective cultures, artist Liz Vitlin (BFA 2016), Nancy Valladares (BFA 2015), and Vivienne Luo Wnag (BFA 2015) connect personal histories and explore the tensions within their won cultural backgrounds. Through photography and sculpture, the artists straddle two cultures and romanticize the past, exploring a universal feeling to homeland within the gallery. Liz Vitlin was born in the U.S., but raised by USSR immigrants. ‘Too Russian’ to be considered ‘American’ and ‘too American’ to be considered ‘Russian’, her photographs embrace the sensation of longing and loss for a culture she was never raising in. Idiosyncrasies from pre-1991 Russia and Judaic culture pervaded her family, regardless of their contemporary relevance. Vitlin cleverly utilizes modern day Russia’s relationship with the Soviet Union as a metaphor for her personal history; as a result many themes presented in her works, like ‘Soviet gymnastics’ in her Died Picking Strawberries At Your Dacha series, border on fetishism. Nancy Valladares was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Her photographs and installations explore the relationship between folklore, gender, and colonialism in Honduran culture. Valladares’s concerns grow from an identity conflict; as a woman of mestizo background she questions whether to identitfy with European or Amerindian roots. Relying on the materiality of caly, nylon and found objects, her work The stories My Clay Mother Told Me consists of a series of installations that recount her family history and societal expectations. Drawing from childhood memories, Valladares recalls being fascinated by her mothers nylon stocking collection and associating it with a notion of womanhood. Clay, the material her Mami Nela used t make utensils and vessels for the kitchen and household, is utilized as a way to preserve but also subvert traditions passed onto her. Each installation evolves into a complex interweaving of narratives. Vivienne Luo Wang was born and raised in Nanjing, China, a country abundant with history and culture, but wrought with problematic secret structures. Her work explores the distance between herself and her homeland. Mo, her last photograph in Nanjing, peaceful in appearance conceals underlying cultural tensions. In A Mirage, an encounter with a highly exoticised Chinese garden in Montreal, Wang captures a momentary illusion of homeland. Through hints of nostalgia these tranquil and poetic photographs capture moments of estrangement and misunderstanding, referencing the buquiling nature of motherland.