Home is a Belief

Barker, Garry ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1686-3738 (2025) Home is a Belief. In: Drawing Conversations 5: What and Where is Home? University for the Creative Arts, pp. 13-28. ISBN 978-1-0369-1174-4

Abstract

In this case study two sets of images are compared that emerged from drawings made by the artist Garry Barker whilst talking to people who live in his local community. One set of drawings were produced in response to conversations made about a selected ‘special’ object from a domestic setting, that meant something important to a post stroke victim; another group of drawings were made after talking with refugees living in temporary accommodation in a repurposed high-rise block of flats. In both cases drawing is used to reveal narratives that can emerge from human/object relationships and two different world views are articulated, both revealed as being as much to do with fiction as reality, as they travel in opposite directions, sometimes as imaginary travellers and at other times as observers of a harsh reality. A third ‘life story’ is then interjected as an example of how when images are woven from the threads of stories about ‘home’ they can also be disturbing, especially when events are generated by political realities. These drawn images allow us to reflect upon the fact that sometimes the home hosts doorways to other worlds and sometimes home is not a home at all.

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