An entry for an illustration competition called ‘Home’ that challenged participants present a re-imagination of the idea of home. ‘Home is where the fish is...’ politely takes this idea to the absurd proposing an underwater fish-shaped house. At first glance the drawing is disguised in comedy, referencing childhood cut-away drawings and comic books, yet this hides more serious undercurrents about the future of home. The faintly militaristic tropes of a submarine design and the design for underwater living hints at an uncertain future for humanity threatened by climate change and global instability. The image was also accompanied by a 500 character short-story that describes the experience of arriving home:

There’s a shrill hiss as the pneumatics seal the heavy airlock door, air rushes in. The remaining briny water drains through grilles in the floor back to the heavy ocean pressing on the taught hull above.

As you remove your wetsuit the deep throb of the engines resonates below. Milky blue projector light pours through the library door, and rising up from the kitchen is the steamy and heady smell of roasting vegetables mixed with the sounds of clashing pots.

Welcome home.


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