Homesick at Carnegie Art Museum (cont)

Home•sick
Dec 12, 2009 - Feb 21, 2010
OPENS Dec 12th 4pm-7pm
Carnegie Art Museum

I will be introducing a few of the artists a day, throughout the week.
Today: Kelly Reemtsen, Joaquin Trujillo and Sophia Wallace.


© Kelly Reemsten

"The first time I went to camp, it was a two-week camp. Every day felt like an eternity. I also felt like I was really far away from home. I was probably only a couple of hours away, but it felt on the other side of the world. I think in general, homesick means people who are longing for home. Instead of nostalgia, I’m viewing homesick at a different angle and using the word as a mental illness.

The work is about my obsessive-compulsive behavior. It’s always kind of joke between me and my friends about how clean I am. I am searching for perfection: fixing, organizing and cleaning my home because it never seems quite right." - kr



© Joaquin Trujillo

"Homesick was a word that was foreign to me. We really don’t have that word in Mexico. Someone explained it to me, but it still was a mystery until I got to New York. It was interesting to me that when I was so happy, had accomplished what I had worked for, when I had reached this moment, I felt so alone even though I was surrounded by so many people. I started wondering what homesick was for a lot of other people that I knew.

Flowers are really important in my mother and sisters' homes, not just on birthdays and anniversaries, but everyday and year round, on their patios and through their houses. When I was a kid I used to pick flowers from each of them. But December 12, Guadalupe Day, was extra special. I would make a bouquet that was so amazing, I always felt like I had taken home the first place blue ribbon at an American county fair for it. Six flowers and one arrangement is the representation of love and support they have given me. My arrangement represents what I have consciously obtained from them as well as what has made me the man I am today." - jt



© Sophia Wallace

"Homesick for me is a lot about memories of the past, my family, and the people I grew up with who influenced and shaped me.

I’m going to be showing found photographs of my grandmother—portraits of her and then also portraits of me as her. In creating this series, the process of discovery and restoration was important to me. I know very little about the period of her life before her role as wife, mother and grandmother—when she was Sophie Olafson, a theater student and the teacher of a one-room schoolhouse. I lost my grandmother this year so the series is about losing and finding my grandmother." - sw