The Architecture of Place

Peering through a small window, curious visitors to the Lamont Gallery can glimpse an intricately detailed scene, built in miniature and hidden inside the wall. The illusory piece by artist Patrick Jacobs is part of “Home Sweet, Somewhere,” the gallery’s fall exhibition, which grapples with the question, What do we mean when we say, “home”?

The show, on view through November 21, brings together five artists who “unravel and reconstruct aspects of the home,” says Pam Meadows, curator and gallery director. “Floating chairs, portholes to domestic vignettes and anthropomorphic dwellings are just a few examples of the disarming illusion and subtle unease that the artists play with.”

The theme is particularly poignant for a school where 81% of students live on campus, far from home. “I have tried to put myself in the shoes of our students and what I might have felt leaving one place for another,” Meadows says. “I hope that as I lead Harkness discussions with students over the course of the term, we can share how ideas of home fluctuate and their experiences of journeying to Exeter.”