HOME-ing: a live art odyssey on foot from London to Wales

HOME-ing was an ambitious new word costume project - a whole word-in-one this time, that I walked 225 miles in from my home in London to my family home in Wales. The costume spelled HOME and carried everything I needed for the journey including a drop-down tent. It was my home for 34 days. As I walked, I talked to people I met along the way about “home” and what it means to them. Working with brothers George and Isaac Baggaley the many hours of footage has been made into a 33’38” documentary film. A hugely public artwork, this was also a personal journey, reflecting the move my family did when I was a child from London to Wales. Acting as a giant prop the HOME-ing costume created an opportunity to engage with people from both urban and rural communities that I passed through as I made my way through this particular part of the UK. “Home” has political, social and cultural resonances as well as being highly personal. An idea I have had for a few years, setting off in summer 2021, as we came out of the COVID lockdowns, seemed like the right time to do it; to gain an insight in to how people’s relationship with “home” may have changed over the past few years. I had stop off days, being hosted at various Arts spaces: the Feminist Library in Peckham, HOME Slough, OVADA in Oxford, About Face Theatre Co. in Leominster and the Sidney Nolan Trust in Presteigne. The project was funded by an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant. The costume was exhibited at the Forum Box Gallery in Helsinki as part of a group exhibition with the Mobile Feminist Library and other artists from UK and Finland. The film premiered at the Feminist Library in Peckham. Please see the HOME-ing page on my website for information: https://www.harriethill.co.uk/home-ing The film can be viewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sTAaPuGuoD4 And follow me on Instagram where I posted daily updates throughout my journey #homeingproject