Homecoming Diptych

About this work

I got really homesick near the end of my second year of university. It was snowing heavily (which was so foreign to me as someone from the Caribbean) and I had had a blast of a Christmas break that felt far too short. When it came time to actually return to Cayman for the summer, I designed the poster on the left, Nostos. It speaks to the Greek idea of the hero finally returning home after a perilous journey. This word gives us nostalgia, which we in the English-speaking world know as that bittersweet feeling of longing for something long gone or out of reach. I had felt nostalgia for my childhood in Cayman, and returning to my homeland, to my home, and to my family settled that within me.

Recently, a ceasefire was brokered for Gaza, ending Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the region and sending some of the hostages on both sides home. The thing is that, unlike with my return or the return of the Israeli hostages, “home” for the Palestinians is rubble. Their cities have been flattened and their homes smashed to pieces or sold. Their families have been killed by Israeli airstrikes or by collapsing concrete. And yet, this photo, posted by the State of Palestine on Twitter (X), shows people full of joy as they return home.

I considered calling this work Al-Istiʕāda (the recovery) instead, but I decided against it because the image doesn’t show people necessarily eager to rebuild, but rather, people excited to return home. And for me, such an idea means returning to culture and family and familiarity. But for them, it’s exactly what the words say: returning home.