Intentions

By Jackie

This panel explores the layered intentions and yearnings of immigration-impacted individuals as they navigate their relationship to ancestral homelands. Constructed as the exterior of a house, the structure is built from short quotes gathered through interviews asking, "What factors influence an immigrant-impacted individual’s decision to visit their ancestral homeland?" These fragmented responses form a mosaic, reflecting the complexities of identity, longing, and belonging. Surrounding the house are photographs submitted by participants which are images of places they dream of visiting, tied to memories, family stories, or imagined connections. The house represents both a container and a boundary: a symbol of stability and a marker of distance. It holds together conflicting emotions such as desire, hesitation, hope, and uncertainty. For many, “home” is a shifting concept, caught between inherited memory and present-day reality. This work invites viewers to reflect on how migration reshapes not only physical location, but also one’s sense of place, history, and self. In listening to these voices, we encounter not a single truth, but a collective expression of yearning.