For the past nine years, Homelands has lived up to its name and its remit, welcoming original film and video artworks from all over the world, each of them exploring the nature of home and community, what it means to have or not have a home ‘land’ but also what it means to be human.

This year artists also had the theme of ‘Through Light and Shade’ to respond to. The isolation wrought by the pandemic is visible in many of the entries, achieved through highly original computer-realized imagery, distorted, layered, glaring and interwoven as well as live performance and sometimes a stylized mix of the two.

In live action we had absurdism meets metaphor in the emotional slow release from hope and courage to despair, resignation, acceptance perhaps, as a woman bales out a boat in a field from Ellen Rose. At the other end, we had a mind, even a life unravelling from Therry Rudin and Patricia Hurl, in a room with a table filled with blue glass, and Thais Muniz ‘evocative performer-led exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in Ireland. Then we have the sumptuous underwater fable from Rayleen Clancy, the bone-bare shadow play from Mark Kent and the layered interplay of images suggesting both community and isolation from Eduard Fulop. We had puppets and ponds, snails and psychedelic, speed and stillness – every piece seeking to stimulate and awaken the senses.

‘Homeland’ was developed through Damer House Gallery and in collaboration with the Loop Festival Barcelona, the Alalimon Galeria, Barcelona 2022 (www.loop-barcelona.com and www.alalimon.org)

Established in 2012 by artists Patricia Hurl & Therry Rudin, the gallery is an artist-led centre for contemporary art in Damer House, Roscrea Co. Tipperary.