Home Beyond Home
A visual narrative
What makes you smile? Where do you find solace amidst all the chaos of our busy lives? Who’s the first person you call to calm your nerves after a rough meeting? What is the meaning of ‘home’ to you?
Cranwell International Center presents to you a first look at the exhibition titled, "Home Beyond Home" where your fellow Hokies share the stories of their home through the lens. Whether it's cherished memories of a home you left behind, or the vibrant tapestry of life here in Blacksburg, each snapshot is a piece of a personal narrative.
Winners
1st place: Don't Fight the Wind. Listen to It. - Krishnanand Karthikeyan
When I was a kid it didn't take much to make a day feel magical. A patch of open ground and a kite tugging at the end of a string were enough to stretch an afternoon into something endless. This photo pulled me straight back to those days and to my grandfather. He used to make kites by hand by trimming bamboo slivers on the verandah and cooking up glue from flour and water. He always let me pick the color, and I almost always chose red. Before handing the kite over, he'd hold it up to the light and say, "Don't fight the wind. Listen to it." Seeing this picture feels like a small piece of my own childhood has quietly come back to me through someone else's afternoon and someone else's sky.
2nd place: Dalton Hwy Moon Rise - Pentancorfilm
Along the Dalton Highway, where the Brooks Range rises in quiet strength, the moon lifts over a land shaped by ice, wind, and time. This a place long known to Alaska Native peoples- where Inupiat communities have lived with the rhythms of the tundra, reading the sky, and snow, and the silence as part of home itself. The road may feel distant and solitary, but it passes through a landscape rich with memory and belonging. Here, "home beyond home" is not just a feeling- it's a reminder that even in the most remote places, life has always found its way to belong.
3rd place: Where Nigerian Heritage Meets Elegance - John Akanbi
Dressed in vibrant Nigerian attire, she embodies grace, heritage, and quiet strength.
Honorable Mention: Garaze - Eliaas Moore
Small shed-like garages; common in many former Eastern Block cities. Often placed behind or near large apartment buildings.
Honorable Mention: Home is Where the Cat Is - Kulyash Zhumadilova
The ultimate home.
Honorable Mention: Boats Before Sirens. Location: Pasabandar, Sea of Oman (Makran), Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran - Arash Shams
This coast makes me think of the fishermen whose lives are tied to these waters. In times of conflict, even the seas stops feeling open, and survival becomes uncertain for people who have lived by it for generations. What should have remained an ordinary day of work now feels overshadowed by fear.
Final Selections
About the judges
Michael Borowski is a visual artist working with an expanded photographic practice. He received an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan and B.F.A from the University of New Mexico. His research-driven art practice examines overlooked geographies and spaces of intimacy, privacy, community, and belonging. He frequently works with digital and analog photographic processes, and at times incorporates sculpture, installation, and emerging technologies. His recent research and creative work constructs speculative queer histories tied to architectural sites in Appalachia and the South.
Laura Iancu is a visual artist working primarily in non-fiction & experimental video forms, with an expanded practice of 3D animation and immersive video game design. She studied Fine Art Pedagogy at Ovidius University on the Romanian shore of the Black Sea and traveled to the US where she received an MFA in Photography and another in Cinematic Arts from the University of Iowa. Currently she teaches film production classes as Assistant Professor in the Cinema Program at the School of Performing Arts, Virginia Tech.
Her work blends aspects of sound art, poetry, magic realism, pop/internet culture, gaming, gardening and the myriad mutations of contemporary technology. Formally it ranges between traditional observational documentaries, such as Birthtree- a feature length film about the isolated village of her paternal grandparents- to the abstract&non-linear: Rattle, Fever, Manilla Folder, Self(ie;), Minerals and Buttercups, Transmissions, Faster, Sinking About You, Leave it Open, // Current State = true;.
Her films and games have been showcased at venues across the world including Trinidad+Tobago Film Festival, Mimesis Documentary Festival, London Experimental Film Festival, Indie Grits, Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Antimatter, Montreal Underground Film Festival, Seattle Transmedia & Independent Film Festival, Festival ECRÃ, Front International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, South Carolina Underground Film Festival, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, CÓDEC Festival of Experimental Film and Video, Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival, 10'th International Video Poetry Festival Athens, International Film Guanajuato.
Recently Iancu has finalized a series of short documentaries in collaboration with local growers and scientists on soil vitality in biodynamic farming and rural traditions of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont regions of Virginia.