Mi Casa Es Mi Casa

What makes a home? Is it the people who inhabit it? The place where it's located? The smells or sounds that surround it? Often, the home is a place filled with memories: some mundane and repetitive, some celebratory or mourning, some of laughter and pain. It becomes a place where only those close to us experience the best and worst parts of life. It is a haven where moments of being unburdened from work are spent resting and recharging. It is a place that is distinctly one's own. 

Working from reference photos, artist Henry Morales depicts the intimate and everyday moments of his family's home, moments which are often unseen by others. By combining various representative elements within each artwork, including dirt, junk mail, vitamin bottles, home videos, and family photos, Morales creates an immersive installation of his family's living room In Las Vegas, Nevada. Taken together, the installation reveals works that resonate to his family's life after moving to the United States from Guatemala. 

The title, Mi Casa Es Mi Casa (a reference to the spanish saying “Mi casa es su casa”), points to the idea of the home being a place where one can truly be themselves and underscores the importance of representing and showcasing the moments, culture, and personal history that make one’s home and life uniquely theirs.  

Sponsored by the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and VCAM’s Malcolm Baldwin 1962 Fund.

Photos By Constance Mensh