Lia Skøien
“Borta Bra, Hemma Bäst” (Away is Good, Home is Best”
Prompt: "Open Works", meaning an exploration to determine my everyday existence as contextual as opposed to actual to interpret it through non-linear forms. Since the course is focused around the keyword "Embodied", us students were encouraged to focus on the physical self. The final outcome is open to become anything it leads to.
“Borta Bra, Hemma Bäst”,(Away is Good, Home is Best” explores the physical changes that now represent the newfound self I developed over the course of my first months in New York City.
Collecting new tattoos, new haircuts, clothes, friends, experiences and ultimately, going through my days by dirtying down my laundry to, essentially, complete the day – the clothes I used specifically represent the days I had to go through, had to experience, had to feel, even make a mess in, go become this greater version of myself. Therefore, I wanted to explore the concept of outer change reflecting inner growth by using hair, dirty laundry, ink, used nylon stockings, pillowcases, etc. to represent the objects helping me on the way.
Reminiscent of a clothing drying rack, old laundry bags hand from the wooden board, containing old headphones, underwear, deconstructed socks imprinted with ink of the phrase “borta bra, hemma bäst”. This, as if the footprints I made was imprinted by knowing that “Home is Good, but Home is Best”, which is now a place within my own physical body. The sculpture also include
Lia
s softer knitted rib knit samples of stronger colors to re ect the new changes made, emerging from the mundane objects in my life.
In summary, this project reflects the necessary physical changes I went through in this period of immense, uncomfortable and transformational growth I went through as an individual. Completely out of my comfort zone, at present time, the inner change is so strongly correlated to the way I see myself in the mirror every day, showing just how my idea of home has shifted to be contained within my body.
