What makes a dream home, or a dream neighbourhood? Does the location, feature or history of a place reflect who you are?
Richmond artist Phoebe Huang explores these themes in her latest work “The Dream Home”, which won her the B.C. regional championship at this year’s BMO 1st ART! competition.
As a visual arts student at SFU, Huang made use of green floors and architectural backdrops, alongside simple props such as a stool, a framed green airplane and wooden cut-outs, to create a fabricated “home.”
The “home” looks nothing special, but plays on the idea of her mom’s ideal home, a place reminding Huang’s mom of who she is – a woman growing up under the influence of the military in communist China.
“I’m originally from Edmonton. My family lives in a neighbourhood there that used to be a military base, which was redeveloped into a residential and commercial neighbourhood,” Huang told the Richmond News.
When Huang asked her mom why she chose this place as her home after coming to Canada, her mom said “it had to do with nostalgia.”
“When she was growing up in communist China, the military played a big part in her life, in how she lived, worked and went to school,” said Huang.
“Then coming here to Canada, she wanted to find refuge in something that’s similar, in a place that she could kind of feel like she belonged to.
“And she found that having something military in her neighbourhood was an ideal element in what she wanted to be a part of.”
Huang uses her art to explore her family story and what factors contribute towards people seeing a place as a perfect place to live – for example the houses, the people and community who live there or the history of the place.
The image shown in the background of her artwork is a shot of a real estate advertisement – including a rendering – of her neighbourhood in Edmonton that used to be a military base.
“I was interested in how the development company used the history of that place as a way of attracting people into buying homes here, and how the history plays a part in people’s decision,” explained Huang.
“I extracted some of the military elements and made my own dissected image of the idea – the idea of a dream home.”
Huang said it is “pretty amazing” to have won the award and she is excited to represent B.C. to showcase her work at the University of Toronto from Nov. 15 to Dec. 8.
The BMO 1st ART! competition recognizes 13 art students who are in their final year of study across the country every year. Each award winner receives between $7,500 and $15,000.
