'A Home from Home' was an interactive installation, exploring the concept of sustainability. It won the Stem+Glory Prize as part of the Sustainability Art Prize Exhibition, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge, 2017:
This work is part of an ongoing personal project about the warmth and sincerity required of human relationships in a sustainable and flourishing society. You are invited to have tea, served in a compostable paper cup by volunteers from a range of cultures.
The British and Middle Eastern furnishings symbolise the cross-cultural hospitality experienced by the artist, when visiting a Sudanese refugee in Edinburgh, as part of a voluntary effort to foster friendships among neighbours. We were greeted by a young man who had recently been housed in a council flat. He entered the United Kingdom by travelling under a lorry from Calais to Dover. It was a dangerous journey and he was afraid of being found.
Faith is central to his life, and he loves to listen to chanted recordings of the Qur’án. He feels that people of diverse backgrounds must work together to contribute to a more just world. When he starts work, he would like to gain an English language qualification and attend university.
The host served us black tea with sugar and fresh mint. A Home from Home suggests that a sense of warm hospitality is key to building a global culture of sustainable collaboration.
