Far Away, From Home, 2024
Marine-grade plywood, acrylic, steel, ABS plastic, vinyl on lightbox, 62” x 98” x 23”
Installation shots by Lee-Daniel Tran

I never imagined I would remain in the United States for as long as I have. Here, I exist as a resident alien, a state of being marked by a quiet and relentless transformation over the years. Each day seems to gently dissolve fragments of the self I once knew, as if every moment away from my homeland erases a piece of who I was. Caught between what I have left behind and what I long to become, I grappled with the impulse to cast off every visible trace of being an outsider in this country. As an immigrant of color and a queer person, I often wonder if the processes of assimilation and self-categorization are inevitable, perhaps even necessary means through which we reclaim and rebuild the identities we may ultimately lose. How, then, might I navigate the complexities of a liminal space without falling into essentialist traps?

From that tangled state of frustration and confusion, Far Away, From Home emerged as a site-responsive installation in the form of a curio cabinet reminiscent of the one in my parents' home in Hunan, China. Resting on four baluster-shaped legs, the cabinet is divided into twelve compartments, seven of which contain double-sided lightboxes displaying paired photographs on each side. Inspired by Trinh T. Minh-ha’s essay "Far Away, From Home: The Comma Between," I was drawn to the concept of otherness as both “a site of return” and “a site of change”. In the diasporic journey of many queer immigrants, home is not defined by borders but emerges as a constellation of scattered memories and elusive remembrances. I never intended to create an exact replica of the furniture my parents possess. Instead, I envisioned it as a sentimental proxy that, while being recognizable, cradles a shadow of something other, ultimately revealing the paradox of home: ever familiar, yet haunted by the promise of what lies beyond.

From this paradoxical understanding of home, I began to recognize how placelessness becomes a narrative of its own, echoed in the traces we leave behind. I felt a quiet compulsion to embody these sticky, elusive, sometimes unruly sentiments into the public sphere with this installation. If visibility is the mark of legitimacy in the dominant narratives, I always wonder whether deliberately remaining on the periphery can transform absence into a dynamic, radical force that complicates and metabolizes ways of being; ceaselessly remade and reinvented until, in that tender space between remembrance and longing, we recognize the home we've carried within us all along.

Far Away, From Home is commissioned by The Rose Kennedy Greenway in celebration of Year of the Dragon. The installation is currently on view at Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park through October 2025.

Essays: “Opacity and Exposure” by Thea Quiray Tagle and “Tending to Queer Diaspora” by Sunhay You
Poster Design: wei

Zhidong Zhang

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