Early in the spring of 2021, Lancaster Arts hosted a call out for artists to explore what belonging means to us now after all the upheaval and social unrest over the previous year. Commissioned artist Layla Khoo sought out those who share the experience of feeling that they belong to more than one place, or that they do not actually belong anywhere. Layla has asked and thought about what it takes to create a sense of belonging. Is this through language, food, clothing, places, people, art, colours, cultural events, or something else?

What has become apparent is that there is no single way in which belonging is experienced. However, there is common ground in terms of the connections that people have made; either in the places they have felt belonging to, or in their continued journey towards belonging.

Drawing on these conversations and realisations, Layla has created and designed pairs of cups which only share one saucer. Each cup is inspired by the stories and experiences shared by the people Layla has met. The two cups represent differing journeys and experiences, while the shared saucer represents the moment in which those journeys cross paths.

These pairs of cups, which are ornamental, symbolic and functional, feature decoration drawn from the stories and experiences shared by the people Layla has met. They encourage us to share a moment on the journey towards belonging and offer an insight into the experiences of those who have belonged to more than one place and made Lancaster their home.



If these themes resonate with you, we will be holding a Creative Gathering on belonging in January 2022 where we will reflect on the project with Layla. If you would like to find out more about this you can contact Creative Producer Lauren on Lauren@Lancasterarts.org

*Credit & alt text/description*

*Credit & alt text/description*

The image above shows the opening event for Connecting to Belonging. In a room with a grey floor and paler grey walls with windows on the right-hand wall, there are plinths of varying sizes against the left-hand and back walls, and in the foreground there are three armchairs, a small coffee table and a bench. On the bench there are some free hand outs that feature some of the information on this page, and on the coffee table there is a comment book. Somebody is crouched over reading the comment book and there are people stood and crouched around the plinths to look more closely at the pairs of cups that form the artwork in this exhibition.

Adrienne

Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Transplanting from one home to another. Familiarity and everyone stinking the same.

Finding your way
around...

Scroll down this page to see a video walk through of the exhibition and the individual artworks created for Connecting to Belonging, with accompanying words by the participants.

Scroll right to see work by members of Migration Art, courtesy of Eleanor Denvir.

Here you will find a photograph of each pair of cups with a few words from the participant who helped create them. Scroll down to see all 18.

Maja

Bridging between places and cultures. Faith connecting, reaching out, embracing those outside and in. It’s not a place, it’s in relationships.

Eleanor

Weaving together the many threads, a flow being poured into, gathering in places and then flowing on again elsewhere.

Geraldine

Lazy stereotypes, generational culture clashes and assimilation. A lasting international “family” formed at the university.

Valerie

Wherever I lay my hat, being pulled, beckoned, floating to where the need is.

Lana

Making a new home encompassing small pieces of homes left behind, and of homes only heard of and never seen.

Somayeh

Connecting to the past and the present. What I used to be, and what I need to be.

Evelyn

Losing the freedom to ride, gaining the freedom to love. Starting all over again.

Carmen

Traditional clothes of home. Old and new languages together with sushi.

Maryam

The importance of language, and leave to remain. Finding home, feeling happiness and the kindness of friends.

Iris

Evening aromas rising. Where I am guided by my heart.

Sana

The many levels and layers of class and belonging. Hyphenated identity, colonisation and partition.

Sophie

They are not what they are. Changing but remaining the same – everything is connected.

Candy

More than guinea pigs! Family, from coast to mountains.

Fabiha

Burger. Belonging is feeling accepted. A trusted safe space.

Ilhaam

Messed up chameleon. Being at home in own skin and body. Not British / SA / Muslim enough.

Sherri

Finding belonging in jumping off the mountain. Family and art, growing together.

Todd

A ranger’s sense of leaving a place better than when you found it. A catalyst and amplifier.

MIGRATION ART

SEPARATION & CONNECTION

Forced by circumstances to leave homeland, family and the familiar world, facing barriers of language and culture, we are pushed into real knowledge of how strong our connections are, how it feels to be alone. Besa’s painting, ‘Refused’, uses a bare but powerful red, black and white to mingle the rain with the presence of a small solitary figure trying to protect itself while its reflection dissolves. Dora’s ‘Untitled’ presents us with black tears dripping from breast-like globes. In Evelyn’s ‘Tears’ the whole sky is weeping and dividing space. Each picture in this section shows something of separation or connection. In Amanda’s ‘Spirit’ we see beyond the land and sea, behind the journey, a house and a floating figure emerging, continually present, hovering and separated. Luwam’s ‘Birthday’ combines a bare, plant-like structure of branches emerging from a stem, which becomes a layered birthday cake before our eyes. Sarah’s ‘Conversation’ offers us the warmth of two different birds who wear the same colours, singing to each other from branches of different trees, connecting through voice.

Besa, 'Refused'

Dora, 'Untitled'

Luwam, 'Birthday'

Evelyn, 'Tears'

Amanda, 'Spirit'

Sarah, 'Conversation'

LEAVING

The artworks in this section concentrate on moments of departure. In Kenya’s ‘Goodbye’, a figure standing on a tropical beach has her back to us and is turned towards the wide ocean. We do not see her face. Evelyn’s ‘Untitled’ uses a storyboard approach, in which the sun-lit dovecote of home is cordoned off from events leading to an empty unknown space. Locheia’s ‘Escape’ depicts a block-shaped figure whose pencil-lined, tear-stained face is reminiscent of a carving, carrying a baby and bag through the darkness. In Jona’s ‘freedom’, the sky finally opens above the barbed wire, and birds which were imprisoned can fly free into the light

Kenya, 'Goodbye'

Evelyn, 'Untitled'

Locheia, 'Escape'

Jona, 'Untitled'

JOURNEY, ARRIVING AND TRANSFORMATION

Mary, 'No Way Out'

Sarah, 'Journey'

Kenya, 'Welcome'

Somayeh, 'Fish Bride'

Meysun, 'Untitled'

IDENTITY

The context we live in interplays with our sense of identity. What happens when we are thrown into a new environment in which former senses of identity may become annulled? Sofia’s ‘Two Spaces’ is an abstract work that shows a colourful space and a grey space, both complicated and textured but divided from each other as though the two do not blend but stay on either side of a divide. Meysun’s ‘untitled’ is a reflection on the privacy of personal space. Two more bird sketches, Somayeh’s 'Fire Bird' and Narobeka’s ‘Untitled’ give the impression of energies within the individual that persist, whether that is something settled and homely or fiery and dynamic.

Meysun, 'Space'

Somayeh, 'Fire Bird'

Sofia, 'Two Places'

Narobeka, 'Untitled'

In this section, we find the complexities of journeys with Sarah’s sketch ‘Journey’ and in Mary’s abstract piece ‘No Way Out’. Sarah’s work uses small, pencilled, very identifiable details to describe the journey, while Mary’s uses rough intersecting lines and arrows whose directions confuse and whose colours indicate darkness and heat. Meysun’s ‘Untitled’ uses one colour to depict a bird, both fragile and stable, on a thin branch, its head slightly turned. Is it mid journey, migrating, or has it arrived? The branch is its only environment, the rest is vacant, empty space. Yet its solitary state also feels balanced and ready. Sarah’s painting ‘New Land’ and Kenya’s ‘Welcome’ both visually describe the nature surrounding their new homes, the flight and arrival of the migrating birds in this place. Somayeh’s ‘Fish Bride’ presents a fish, apparently dead - a ‘fish out of water’ - transforming through stages, growing a beak and wings to take flight; again, into the light.

Jona, 'Freedom'

Sarah, 'New Land'

Mary, 'Untitled'