UPPING STICKS

Investigating a ‘Sense of Home’ began by looking through the lens of what it must mean to be homeless. Often, the understanding of what is tangible can be better understood by the absence of that state or being. ‘Upping Sticks’, physically taking up one’s possessions, set into place thoughts of migration, displacement and dis-belonging.
A humble object, the stick resounds with many narratives. Sticks of temporary shelter, fences identifying boundaries, markers of navigable channels, kindling wood, man’s first tools, the provision of shelter, protection and nurture.
The stick is inextricably bound to mankind and the human condition. Over time, the stick, along with other familiar objects in abstract form, have become metaphors embedded in my work.