Cupertino museum exhibits artworks that feel like ‘Home’
Installations help create sense of place for lost loved ones.
The fall exhibit at De Anza College’s Euphrat Museum of Art has a personal connection for museum director Diana Argabrite. “Facing Home,” set to open Nov. 1, includes an installation by her late mother, Edith R. Argabrite.
“She was a 55-year resident of Sunnyvale who passed in January this year,” Argabrite recalls. “She was a Holocaust survivor, Jewish, born in the Czech Republic.
“The work being featured is an installation of a couple hundred ascending felted nest sculptures. In her kinder class there were over 2,200 children, but only about 25 survived. Her goal was to make 2,200 nest sculptures to represent resting places for those classmates who didn’t survive. The nests are colorful and playful; there is a sense of hope in spite of the history.”
The installation is one of several in “Facing Home” that explore what constitutes a sense of home or refuge and honor the passing of loved ones central to the concept of home.
“What She Left Behind,” a 16-foot-tall dress installation by San Jose artist Tessie Barrera, pays tribute to her teenage daughter Amanda, who was killed in a car accident at age 16. In creating the installation, Barrera thought about what Amanda owned as a 16-year-old that wasn’t given or bought for her.
“To begin with, there were a good number of handwritten journals; boxes crammed with letters and notes passed back and forth among her friends; and notebooks that were covered with comments and observations,” the artist writes on her website.
Other objects visible beneath the folds of the sheer dress speak to her daughter’s love of dancing, singing and photography.
“It’s hard to believe how many years have passed, but I still have her voice on tape, prints of some of her favorite images and a few treasured videos of her dancing,” writes Barrera.
Barrera’s own 16th year was pivotal, as she left her family in El Salvador to attend college in New York City, where she was born.
“Returning to New York to further my education meant relearning a language I had forgotten and adjusting to a culture and society I knew nothing about,” writes Barrera, a former teacher at River Glen School in Willow Glen. “I was an immigrant in my own country.”
“Facing Home” also features mixed media sculptures, large-scale paintings and glasswork by artists Cheryl Derricotte, Nimah Gobir, Kristin Lindseth, George Rivera, Roxana Romero-Vega and Lydia Sanchez.
The exhibit runs through Dec. 14 at the Euphrat Museum of Art at De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd in Cupertino. Museum hours are Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The Euphrat will also be open during the De Anza Flea Market on Saturday, Dec. 2, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. An artists reception is set for Saturday, Nov. 18, noon-2 p.m., with live music and lunch by Un Mas Taco. For more information, visit https://www.deanza.edu/euphrat or call 408-864-5464.