The meaning of ‘home’ changes when we move abroad

A drive to explore sends us out into the world, to experience new things and learn about what is foreign to us. Yet we are analytical creatures, and we constantly compare foreign surroundings with what is familiar: with "home". Moving abroad gives much more weight to the word than I ever noticed when living in Ireland.

I left Dublin in 2013 to find an adventure. A year after graduating from Limerick School of Art and Design, I was working a day job I didn't enjoy and inspiration was thin on the ground. I was unsure how to progress towards the career I wanted, and life felt a bit stagnant. A change was in order, and the opportunity to teach in South Korea seemed too good to pass up.

Taking a year to teach English abroad has become a popular way of travelling to far-flung places; the idea of living in and fully experiencing a foreign country is clearly appealing to many young people who want more than a holiday but don’t have the finances to take a year off work.

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Passing Time (2016, Switzerland): ‘As time passes and our memories of home fade, it shifts to a conceptual form that encompasses much more than a location.’

At first, it can be overwhelming: new sights, sounds and smells bombard you. Moving away alone heightens the experience; I had never been so far away without any friends or family nearby. But as the dust settles and you adjust to your new surroundings, the analysis begins. When you take away the supports of home, the people, places, the culture you have grown up with, it is easy to feel adrift, but over time you can begin to reflect on your own character and build a new sense of self, establishing who you are outside of where you come from.

Changing continent was always going to affect my artwork, but I underestimated just how much of an impact it would have on my creative process. Before travelling, I viewed the year ahead as a chance to get as far away as I could from the daily grind, to bring back my love for making things. But I didn’t expect living in South Korea, or the process of moving there, to be such an inspirational experience.

I had always worked in the same medium, ceramics, which due to lack of access to a kiln wasn’t an option for me in Korea. Instead I turned to 2D art, using found materials and experimenting with watercolours and inks to express my fascination with an entirely new life, and what that meant for my sense of self.

The dramatic landscape of craggy mountains, framing rows of high-rise apartment blocks with neon signs, was a huge contrast to the subtle greens of home, and fed directly into my work. I began to merge geometrical forms and logic with more natural symbols, providing a more enduring backdrop to the constant cycle of inner self-questioning.

Since June last year I have been living and working in Montreux, Switzerland. Switzerland has also had a strong impact on my work. I can see the change in architecture reflected in the geometry of my work, and the aqueous hues of Lake Geneva come through in the colour scheme. Life here is calmer, much more tranquil than the hectic pace in Daejeon, which allows me to reflect on the changes both in me and at home since I first left.

I’m lucky enough to be able to continue teaching, something I found a passion for in Korea, and have had the opportunity in Switzerland to expand my subject range to include art, as well as enhancing my own skill set through a course in printmaking.

When you move abroad, “home” transitions from the place where you live to a concept that encompasses your culture, history, language and more; it becomes a tool that you use to explain how your current home is different to what you have left behind, an idea you carry with you that provides a sense of comfort in a foreign environment.

But distance and time can distort this picture, and the “home” that you carry with you abroad will always differ from the island you return to. Coming home for a short while before leaving again to pursue a career in Switzerland has anchored this idea in my artistic practice, and over time my illustrations have developed from reflecting on how we define ourselves, to how our definition of “home” changes as we become a more migratory population.

Rachel Rothwell's Arise and Go exhibition exploring the notion of "home", based on her personal experience and that of other emigrants, runs from April 8th to 24th at Inspire Gallery, 56 Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin 1. See inspiregalerie.com