Reconnecting

… Reconnecting… has been inspired by Ana Garcia’s experiences living and making as a migrant practitioner. Her project for The Booth explores phone calls between her and her late grandmother who lived in Manila. Phone calls between family members overseas is often an overlooked experience in a migrant’s life but, for Garcia, is one that reveals a lot about the state of a new generation migrant’s identity.

She states, ‘Connecting with family members you have a closeness to but have been separated from for years is a paradoxical experience. Due to the estrangement that distance can bring about, these calls can be both awkward and sometimes taxing. They bring joy and regret, relief and guilt. However, when paired with the real desire one has to maintain relationships, they become equally necessary and invaluable moments of connection between one person and another.’

For The Booth, Garcia will install a telephone which she will call for whoever is there to pick up. The calls she makes will be at random, fitting to her everyday life.  Audiences too will have access to her daily schedule and the opportunity to call her at any time to converse and connect. Garcia’s missed calls to the gallery will be saved as voice messages to be played aloud to the gallery at any given time. In doing so, Garcia aims to echo the lost moments and opportunities that can pass one by and enable new connections between callers to be fostered. Recognising that conversations may seem simple or awkward, it is these seemingly insignificant moments of connection that are so integral to our everyday existence and therefore our identities.

…Reconnecting… acts as a site of triangulation where Garcia’s own migrant background, Gus Fisher Gallery’s repurposed telephone booth and the person on the other end become contributors to a better sense of cultural identity.

The Booth is open for proposals in an annual call. Read more about the space here.

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