Homecoming: How do you know you’re / your home?

Raul de Lara

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Prizers Arts & Letters - Austin, TX

August 2018

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Homecoming features works composed of recognizable household objects-- wooden coat hanger, a Tee-shirt, a shovel, a dog, a radiator--but with unsettling variations made to their appearance that empty them of their expected use value. De Lara’s use of sand in many pieces brings to mind associations with the desert, “wilderness”, or a constantly-changing coastline to engage with the mutability and ephemerality of “home” as he now perceives

it. This year marks not only the year De Lara has lived longer in the United States than in Mexico, but also the year his ability to pursue his education has come into question as a result of the current administration’s anti-immigration policies.

 

As he considers what it means to belong, De Lara draws on his own experiences with familiar objects that seem to know the shape of your body or, through signs of use, ask to be used. His own history as a young man seeking integration and without the ability to communicate in English, De Lara is acutely aware of the ability of objects to engage you in conversation about belonging.