Home As Alone is a research-creation project about caregiving for first and second generation immigrants and the duality of obligation, one being an obligation from society and the other derived from heritage. Should one repeat the actions of previous generations? How is identity affected by caregiving? What is one's identity in society when one is isolated from it? What is the relationship between physical objects and memory? Home As Alone explores such questions through the creation of auto-ethnographic docu-fiction sketches that focus on the subjective realities of Italo-Montréal caregivers. Through an analysis of the home as an ever-morphing organism, Home As Alone examines the changing cultural identities, states of mind, aspirations and regrets of caregivers that speaks toward a wider social commentary. This project takes on significant value in today’s political climate and demographic change, specifically in a multicultural Québec, where ironically de-ethnicization has tended to be encouraged. 

Home As Alone also focuses on the creative strategies used in non-fiction work. How can the aesthetical decisions we make affect the perception of content? With the exploration of diverse cinematic strategies, this project plays around with form and content and how their relationship affects the intake of information. Mixing this formalistic research with the subject of immigration and caregiving, the sketches that are produced aim to affect and influence the perception of subjects that we conceal as a society. With a strong belief that research and artistic creation are two of the most powerful ways of affecting collective thought and experience, Home As Alone aspires to lead to important policy changes in our institutions and government.

 

Home As Alone has been generously funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec and Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

 

Routine Seasons is the first of the series of sketches set to be released in 2022.

 

Home Away from Home is an extension of the wider research-creation project. Its goal is to expand the understanding of complex intergenerational issues relating to migration, identity, and memory. While it is centered around the perception of Italians towards those who have moved away in past generations, it probes such questions as, how are the identities of first and second generation immigrants linked to the views of others? While Canadian society is filled with untold multicultural stories about the notion of 'home' as located elsewhere, Home Away From Home examines the return to the 'home abroad' to see how fluid and conflictual identity can be better understood, theorized and expressed. Home Away From Home is supported by the Home As Alone project and is being considered for Mitacs funding, the Faculty of Fine Arts Travel Award and the Fonds de recherche du Québec Travel Grant (BHSQ), all awaiting results in Spring of 2022.