When Home Won’t Let You Stay

"Nahom Tecklehaimanot’s (b. 1991) large-scale canvases speak to the poignant experience of migration and the unifying weight of lived experience. His works explore the emotional and physical toll inherent in leaving one’s home. He first creates an assemblage of collaged images from magazines and archives before meticulously airbrushing these pieces into a cohesive two-dimensional composition. The smooth, almost ethereal quality of the airbrushing evokes the longing for a familiar comfort, a sense of belonging that has been disrupted. The fractured and fragmented nature of the disparate images, however, reveals the stark reality of displacement. The airbrush’s hazy touch, a reminder of fading memories and the life left behind, stands in contrast with the jarring edges of the composition, symbolising the sudden and often traumatic transition of migration. The works at once address the pain and uncertainty of displacement, and also embrace the resilience and adaptability that come with navigating a new environment." - Snippet from the exhibition.