Ledelle Moe: Where is home?

In response to this question of Where is home? I reflected on the different places I have lived, where I grew up, and where I am now. I remember as a young person in South Africa the impact that television had on our lives when it came into the living room. Before television a relative bubble existed between us (in the South African suburbs) and the outside world. I grew up on a lot of English literature, Natal being a British based province; the school system was predominantly influenced by the British education system. When television entered into our private lives, it brought with it a window into the lives of Americans.

Through these programs the American West and the lives of the rich and famous were played out. I believe, looking back on it, that these movies and stories had an impact on my perception of the idea of the “center” and the “periphery.” America became an ideal, next to the ideal of the Queen, the Royal family and British culture in general. As a teenager I aspired to the notion of a culture that embraced blue jeans and autonomy for all. From the context of an all girls’ school where everyone was required to wear the same uniform, these notions of the relaxed American ideal became hugely informative to how I later moved and came to live in the States.

I can only see this now in hindsight. Thirteen years of living and working in the States, and returning home each year for a couple months has allowed the vantage point of being in both places but not feeling like I belong to either. I have become a visitor in South Africa and an immigrant here. These geographic locations and dislocations have made me realize that a sense of belonging can be found more often than not, on a train, in an aero plane and in the spaces in between each ideal place. I think these spaces in between have helped me realize that it is neither one nor the other but both that now makes up whom I am. Even back in the early 80s when we first bought a television (with strict rules to only watch it twice a week, and keep our family dinners and conversation going), American culture and ideals began to weave themselves consciously and subconsciously into my understanding of what it means to be “a part of the world.”

Through my undergraduate studies in South Africa, I was afforded the opportunity to travel to Paris. Friends and I packed our bags and left South Africa for the first time in 1992. Landing in Paris was like a dream come true. We traveled to London, Germany, Italy, seeing Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde and Bruce Nauman’s work for the first time. What we thought art was was flipped on its head and the expansiveness of vocabulary and diversity of work was amazing.

We returned back to South Africa with a new sense of experimentation and desire for alternative voices, and initiated what later became the FLAT Gallery. In this space we had shows that we hoped crossed boundaries of race, class and institutional preconceptions. The FLAT ran for a couple years and provided me with a clear understanding that art can transcend many boundaries that would otherwise exist.

Traveling on a scholarship from South Africa again in 1994 I left Durban to visit the States for a couple weeks. That trip was meant to last a short while and has since taken me on a journey that I am still on today. I have now lived and worked in the States for 13 years, returning back to South Africa annually during the academic summer. As a teacher at the Maryland Institute College of Art I can return home during the summer vacation time. I remain strongly tied to where I was born - to the smells and deep recognition that comes from having grown up in a place. I was born in Durban, a coastal city that overlooks the Indian Ocean. Returning home means going back to the same address I have had for 37 years. The house itself is a place so layered with memories that it always reminds me that, for me, it is only with this base that I could roam so far, and also with the unconditional support of people who believe in art and support it. I now live in Baltimore, a harbor city that has areas that look a lot like Durban’s Harbor. I hope one day to travel from this Baltimore harbor to Durban’s harbor – over the body of water, allowing more time to explore that space and place in between both worlds.

—Ledelle Moe, artist in Far from Home

Where is home?

Whenever you meet someone, it’s inevitable: one person eventually asks the question, “Where are you from” or sometimes even, “Where’s home?” This may come up either when one is home, or when traveling for work, school, or leisure.

Having relocated to Raleigh, N.C. just over a year ago, this has been cause for much reflection for me. I don’t quite feel like I can honestly say simply “Raleigh” yet. Instead, my reply is more often “I live in Raleigh.” That’s the simple answer (and it is true), but it evades the implication of origins and belonging.

The more complete answer is also more complicated, so I’ll chart it out:

City/State (or Country)	Reason for moving
Columbus, Indiana	Born and raised
Boston, Massachusetts	School
Aix-en-Provence, France	School
Washington, D.C.	Work
Bloomington, Indiana	School
Dakar, Senegal and Paris, France	Transition between school and work (research)
Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana	Transition between school and work (writing)
Washington, D.C.	Work
Detroit, Michigan	Work (with family influence)
Raleigh, North Carolina	Work

These are places I’ve actually had an address. If I incorporated shorter term travel for vacation and research, just the last year would also include Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Mali (international) and Gainesville & Miami, FL; Indianapolis, IN; Louisville, KY; New York, NY, Columbus & Toledo, OH; San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC (domestic).

So the question “where do you live” and “where are you from”—and again “where’s home”—have varied greatly over time. As far as where ‘home’ is, I honestly can’t answer one particular place. If I had to choose, I would answer Indiana, DC, Dakar, and France, though the last only because I had a profound sense of belonging there when I lived in Aix-en-Provence for a year during college (I haven’t returned since—does that matter?). I also lived with a family in northwestern France during high school, and have returned there to visit for over 20 years.

As suggested in the exhibition Far from Home, people relocate for many different reasons: educational opportunity, employment, leisure/vacation, political freedom For me, it has been a matter primarily of education and professional development. Perhaps this is the place for a confession: though Far from Home is first and foremost about the artists and artwork, it is distinctly autobiographical on my part as well.

So let me ask a question to all of you in the blogisphere:
For you, where is home, and what makes it so?

—Kinsey Katchka, curator of Far from Home

Far from Home
North Carolina Museum of Art
February 17-July 13, 2008

Far from Home explores the various ways that displacement is manifested in creative expression, suggesting very personal transformations alongside wider group dynamics of belonging and exclusion. Whether focused on the individual or larger community, works stand in dialogue with the expansion of global networks as people relocate and circumscribe their experiences in new places while maintaining connections to homelands and heritage, however tenuous.

During the exhibtion, several contributors will post on this blog to further the discussion beyond the museum walls and reach people who may be far from home.

Future contributors include:
Kinsey Katchka, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, North Carolina Museum of Art
Ledelle Moe, Artist, featured in Far from Home; Interdisciplinary sculpture faculty, Maryland Institute College of Art
Bisi Silva, Director, Contemporary Art Centre, Lagos, Nigeria
Achamyelah Debela, Artist , featured in Far from Home; Professor of Art, North Carolina Central University
Melissa Cormier, Art history student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
El Anatsui, Artist
Jane Benson, Artist , featured in Far from Home
Lisa Binder, Assistant Curator, Museum for African Art
Christina Burke, Curator of Native American & Non-Western Art, Philbrook Museum of Art
Silvia Forni, Curator of African Art, Royal Ontario Museum
Adrián Halpern, Immigration attorney
Aida Muluneh, Photographer & filmmaker
Youssef Nabil, Artist , featured in Far from Home
Brigitte NaHoN, Artist, featured in Far from Home
Charmaine Picard, Associate editor (US), The Art Newspaper
Mody Sounfountera, Travel agent & tour guide in Bamako, Mali
Jeffrey Witte, Founder & Director, www.amend.org