Placed/​Displaced: Works Exploring Home from GRAM’s Collection

The home is traditionally a place of refuge and retreat – a safe, private space to enjoy life with those closest to you. Events over the past year, however, have altered our perception of the home and its function within our lives. Stay-at-home orders were enacted to curb the spread of COVID-19, requiring people to suddenly adapt their homes to function as a workplace or school; while for those who live alone, home became a site of enforced isolation. These orders brought up critical issues surrounding housing security. Many people lost their jobs and income and faced losing their homes to eviction or foreclosure. The pandemic made it clear that a secure home is directly related to our physical and emotional wellbeing. 

This group of prints and photographs from GRAM’s permanent collection are assembled to consider these current conditions, as well as raise questions about what home looks like and how it makes us who we are. They also explore the effects of displacement or separation from home and acknowledge that a secure, traditional home is not afforded to all.

After viewing the works in this exhibition, consider what home means to you and participate in our talk-back station. Leave your own written response and read those left by other visitors to the museum.