A Trip to Platform A

Review of Homing by Azeez Aromasodun: A Dialogue Between Place and Identity

The duo exhibition Homing, featuring Annie O’Donnell and Matthew Kaplan, offers a compelling exploration of belonging and identity through their artistic lenses. Rooted in their geographies, Teesside, UK, and Calumet, US, the artists construct a visual dialogue that blurs the lines between memory, history, and the socio-political landscapes that shape their communities.

Kaplan’s stark, evocative photography captures industrial terrains with a quiet intensity. His works, such as BP Whiting Refinery During Emergency Shutdown, 2024 and Steel Mills of Indiana Harbour, 2024, document sites of economic transformation, their structures looming with both resilience and decline. His Calumet River Bridges in Chicago, 2022, 2025, reveal the intersections of infrastructure and lived experience, reinforcing how place shapes identity over time.

On the other hand, O'Donnell's collages deconstruct and reconstruct notions of home with layered materials and found objects. Works like Tourist Gaze (Series) 2020 and Homing Collages (Series) 2025 challenge perceptions of familiar spaces, while Rock Dove (Map and Compass) 1, 2, and 5, 2025 incorporate unconventional materials like wire, bamboo, and theatre lighting gels, suggesting the fragility and adaptability of home.

Together, Homing is an introspective yet expansive exhibition, uniting two artists across continents through their deeply personal yet universally resonant investigations of place. It invites viewers to consider their relationships with home, not just as a physical space, but as an evolving, multifaceted concept shaped by time, memory, and identity.