Close isnt Home Book

Close isn’t Home

Byen Pre Pa Lakay (being close to home is not the same as being home

그림의 떡 (a picture of rice cake)- used to describe something you desire but cannot have

Close isn’t Home explores the materials, traditions, and personal items that influence cultural identities and memories. Grace Kwon and Samantha Vassor created a digital art platform to dissect cross-culturalism, generational heritage, and identity. The website depicts transcendental environments, embodying digital intangibility in relation to physical space and nostalgia. The scene within Close isn’t Home represents a hybridized space of both artists’ grandparents’ homes. The creation of the grandparents’ home through digital means represents a sought connection with home spaces; spaces of foundational cultural identity and sense of homeland origin. The scene itself represents the cultural multiplicities of being generational American, referring to nostalgias of American culture as well.

The artists emphasize upon the digital empathy and community by inviting others to a responsive forum. The artists’ friends and family, with similar narratives, were invited to respond to selected objects and anecdotes from the scene. These responses were compiled into a book as well as a digitally printed tapestry. The book and tapestry represent the first iteration of interactive responses to the project. Close isn’t Home will be put on a larger internet platform with the hopes of creating larger global conversations through connecting diasporas online.