‘Ethnic diversity is not new in Britain. People with different histories, cultures and beliefs have been coming here since the beginning of recorded time. Logically, therefore, everyone who lives in Britain today is either an immigrant or the descendent of an immigrant.’ (Commission for Racial Equality).

HOME is a pioneering project whose heart lies within the questioning of what ‘being English’ really means and to recognise the rich diversity that lies within our own families. HOME is also an opportunity to celebrate the significant contribution that immigration throughout the centuries has made to this island society.

More specifically, HOME focuses on the hidden histories of the North Eastern Region. By locating the project within the four ports of Tweedside, Wearside, Tyneside and Teesside it makes comment upon the many cultural ‘traditions’ that have been absorbed and now presented as the Geordie or Border culture.

Trade has always been an important component of the North East and with sea trade come crews, communities and cargoes. Sailors coming off boats, settling and raising families, industrialists from other countries employed to impart skills, centuries of invasion, settlement and industrial booms have all contributed to what ‘being English’ is all about. Surnames, skills, artefacts and literature all reveal that our culture comes from a firm multi-cultural root. Immigration has brought fresh ideas, new skills, labour, capital, resourcefulness and a diversity of cultures that make our lives richer and more varied.

Visual artist Farhad Ahrarnia has immersed himself in the shifting definitions of what ‘HOME’ really means. Concentrating on the hybrid nature of artefacts and ‘traditional’ skills he quietly draws attention to their origins and significance that reveal an exchange of ideas and knowledge.

Ahrarnia has, for his first solo exhibition here at the Shipley Art Gallery, presented a series of works that fuse tradition with contemporary (a new tartan for Berwick), historic with modern (an antique sideboard as an ice cream parlour) and fake with real (‘Roman’ jewellery as modern paste). He has responded to this unique building, resonant with its own rich history by asking us to view it in a different manner. The works you see on the end walls are taken from the Shipley’s own collection and ‘re-curated’ by the artist to suggest different meanings and associations.

Ahrarnia has also seized this opportunity to make comment on individuals who encapsulate the HOME ethos. The neon work hung in the main gallery pays homage to Caroline Akiyama, a Japanese woman living in Newcastle during the 1920s. The beautiful fusing of the two names come together to illustrate and remind us of the rich cultural strata upon which our society evolves.

HOME also asked that the visual artist worked in four schools located within the four regional port towns. Pupils were all asked to reflect upon their own origins and the history that lies within their lineage. The children’s drawings of the artist shown in Gallery C demonstrate an individual’s observation of another. Can all these people be Farhad Ahrarnia?