Journey Home to Self
Household furniture and linen, embroidery thread, header tape, digitally printed cotton and silk organza, barbed wire, post box
In 2021, more than 1800 women per month sought help from specialist services in WA for homelessness. Many more women are in precarious situations but are reluctant to seek help. Women over 45 are the fastest growing group of homeless people in Australia.
In Scomo’s Australia, media stories are carefully focused on a “fall” into homelessness. We are encouraged to think homeless women made bad choices, so that we don’t focus on the failure of governments to deliver basic housing services. This piece explores a woman’s rise out of homelessness. The items represent a woman’s journey, from a pillowcase of essentials to a swag, to a couch and — finally — to a bedroom with a lockable door. It is a journey worth learning from and celebrating.
A pillowcase is an object of comfort that most people use from childhood. It is a place to lay our heads and rest. But how does a homeless woman rest? In our economy, men in power implement policies that make it impossible for homeless women to find a safe space from which to build a life. Rising to a room of one’s own is a solitary journey, full of bureaucratic and social obstacles.
“Rising into A Room of One’s Own is a solitary journey, full of bureaucratic and social obstacles. It’s a journey of resilience, towards personal agency and independence. A journey home to Self.”
“Thank you for creating such a powerful space! We will continue to rise! I can’t wait to bring my mum to this next week.”
Design
In this piece, I was interested in exploring the physical and emotional resilience of a journey, the cycles of effort and rest that are required along the way. The pillowcase is the the symbol for rest, stitched with familiar household sayings that are meant to reassure, but rely on being safely sheltered to do their work. The length of the journey is represented by the winding pink cotton tape, from its start at the barely essential set of items contained in a pillowcase sack, anchored with the aspiration logo of a “safe home” to the key fob of “home safe” at the end. There are obstacles and resting places along the way, all benign household objects weaponised with barbed wire and bureaucracy.
Materials
All the materials in this installation are common household items. It is their ordinariness that gives them their power, asking us to consider how we would fare in this journey of rise without such familiar things in our control.