Floating Homelands: Exploring Memory and Belonging Through Psychogeography

Homeland is a place we carry inside of ourselves. Floating as clouds above the vast terrains of memoryscape that form the human heart, homeland is an agglomeration of scattered sensations and remembrances, of how places, objects, people made us feel.

This poetic notion forms the foundation of Floating Homelands: Psychogeography of Belonging, a new exhibition at the Paris College of Art (PCA). Curated by Bonobithi Biswas, the exhibition brings together her work together with other two Master’s students, each exploring the interplay between memory, place, and identity through photography, drawing, video, and multimedia.

In this unique exhibition, we got the chance to talk with Bonobithi Biswas, Tiffani Thompson, and Caroline Averill to map out how our concept of “homeland” shifts and evolves, especially for those who have moved across different communities, countries, and cultures. Here, they share insights into their creative processes, discuss the challenges faced, and reflect on how PCA has influenced their journey.

Interpreting “Homeland”

Each artist offered a personal take on what “homeland” means to them, from inherited memories to the influence of geocultural history.

How do you define the concept of ‘homeland’? How does that reflect in your work?

Bonobithi Biswas: I come from a family of transgenerational migration, across many borders. I am a fourth-generation migrant. My sense of belonging is not situated in a place or country, but more in intangible cultural elements, central to the trajectory of my personal and family history. For instance, my musical roots deeply define my cultural palette, spreading across diverse genre, starting from the folk music from the land of my grandparents (in modern-day Bangladesh), to classical Indian music entwined with Bengali, Urdu and Persian musical and poetry traditions. My synesthesia makes music very central to my art practice. My other sense of belonging lies in the languages I speak and dream in. Bengali is the language spoken in my family, whereas I grew up in spaces where Hindi and English were the languages used.

Tiffani Thompson: For me, ‘homeland’ is a point of emotional ties and connections to the self. I create points of home based on comfort, love, and intimacy with the environment, my own being, and different relationships. This reflects a lot in my work as it becomes a main focus for my photography and concepts around memory, explored in a different mode of language.

Caroline Averill: I believe that ‘homeland’ is an individualized concept that means something different to everyone. For me, my upbringing and familial ties in Vermont will always shape my definition of home. It has been fascinating to realize how deeply this geography is embedded in me, especially when viewed through the lens of my artistic practice. I find that my work, no matter the concept, is always connected to a sense of home, especially the natural, organic environment of my upbringing.

The Role of Memory and Psychogeography

In “Floating Homelands,” memory and psychogeography merge, inviting viewers to reflect on how memories shape their connection to spaces. The artists share how memory informs their creative approach.

The exhibition explores the idea of psychogeography. How do you personally interpret this concept, and how does it manifest in your artwork?

Bonobithi Biswas: As a migrant woman of color, I have known the lack of safety from multiple life experiences. Let’s just say, being ‘the other’ in a space is a sensation I am very familiar with. For me, psychogeography is related to a very instinctive sense of safety and danger, of being watched, discriminated against or violated, or alternatively, an understanding of shared safe spaces. It is about how my body reacts to spaces. That is why themes of surveillance, sexual abuse, racist discrimination and cultural alienation recur in my work.

Tiffani Thompson: My work for this exhibition with psychogeography is focused on the San Francisco Bay Area and my emotional connections to this beautiful place where I have lived my whole life up until now. I wanted to show the loving and still moments that grow within the Bay Area. This reflects my main body of work quite a bit since I am very connected to capturing mundane memories, so these everyday experiences I share in this exhibition’s pieces were extremely natural, and even included some work that you may see again. This exhibition was a great way to think about how my work is subconsciously influenced by ideas such as psychogeography, as I situate my work in a space of its own, but the core of my work comes from where I have built strong connections through my relationships to the environment as well as the platonic and romantic relationships that exist within it.

Caroline Averill: To me, I interpret psychogeography as the profound effect of locations on a person’s character, both mentally and behaviorally. This idea of the conscious and subconscious integration of geography into our personalities is why I chose to explore memory for this exhibition. Particularly, my pieces explore how memory and belonging are integrated into mundane objects from our daily lives.

Materials and Medium Choice

The choice of medium is as much a part of the message as the imagery itself. From photography to multimedia installations, the artists discuss why they chose specific materials to explore the themes of belonging and memory.

Floating Homelands brings together different mediums such as photography, drawing, video, and multimedia installation. How did you choose the medium for your work?

Bonobithi Biswas: The choice of creating a trio where Tiffani works with experimental photography, Caroline with hyperrealistic drawing, and myself with new media and installation, was intentional. The curatorial goal of the show was to expand the theme of psychogeography across ‘space,’ ‘souvenir,’ ‘the body,’ and ‘surveillance.’ My work combines creative writing with video and installation to look at the female body through a political lens, and questions the gaze of artificial intelligence and surveillance.

Tiffani Thompson: I was brought into the exhibition on the basis of bringing in my work in cyanotypes, since that is the center focus of my thesis work. I ended up pitching the concept of topographic maps overlaying some of my prints, which then stemmed to the metro map since I wanted the work to be engaging and situate the images in relation to the area. Selecting the white thread was to keep the work very light in its tactile qualities.

Caroline Averill: Because we all come from different MFA departments within PCA, the three of us involved in this exhibition were fortunate to naturally offer a transdisciplinary approach to the theme of psychogeography. As a drawing student, I realized that my concepts would be best expressed through the colored pencil work I’ve been developing over the past few years. This medium enables me to capture a greater level of detail, allowing my work to best resonate with the essence of memory.

Influence of PCA on Their Artistic Development

Each artist also reflects on how their time at PCA, both in and out of the classroom, has influenced their perspective on art and their creative journey.

How has your time at PCA influenced the development of the work exhibited in ‘Floating Homelands’?

Bonobithi Biswas: My adventure into new media began with my time in PCA, so I must say, it has played a big role in how I define myself as an artist today. A big shout-out to my chair and advisor, Joanna Wlaszyn, who has been a guide, mentor, and a great support system for me.

Tiffani Thompson: I think my time at PCA has connected me more deeply to my home since I have never lived so far away from the people and places that I cherish there. I also have been challenged more in my work at PCA with instructors that want to see me grow in my materials and mediums, so I have been able to further my development quite a lot.

Caroline Averill: The diverse perspectives and collaborative environment at PCA have encouraged the development of my work, especially as it relates to the intricate connections between memory, identity, and place. Engaging with peers from different disciplines, such as Bonobithi and Tiffani, has expanded my approach, allowing me to incorporate a greater range of conceptual elements into my practice.

Is there any specific experience at school that helped you develop the idea behind the exhibition?

Bonobithi Biswas: The city of Paris and its diaspora communities play a large part in my projects of late. Paris College of Art hosts a great diversity of students heralding from all parts of the world. Engaging in such an international multicultural environment has benefited my projects greatly.

Tiffani Thompson:  I think what best helped me was meeting my wonderful co-exhibitors. We have been very encouraging of one another and helped each other grow with our different ranges in artistic references, and that certainly helps me subconsciously. I also find a lot more motivation being around a cohort to keep working and challenging myself as an artist, so just being in the space has been a positive push with the work for the exhibition.

Caroline Averill: Having the opportunity to form friendships with classmates who have different backgrounds and perspectives has greatly influenced my understanding of the ideas behind this exhibition. I feel very grateful to be going through my experience at PCA with artists who are talented in such a diverse range of mediums and concepts, such as my wonderful co-exhibitors.