"homesick" was exhibited and performed at the Penticton Art Gallery from March 22 to May 10, 2025.
homesick exhibition statement
The exhibition homesick is a portrait of family, home, and loss as told through family history. Much of my recent artworks unpack personal definitions of “home”; in homesick, I interrogate my maternal grandfather’s peculiar choices to understand how conceptions of "home" can be inherited.
Central to the exhibition is the artist’s book Lloyd O (2021–24), which unravels an unlikely family lore. In 1959, my maternal grandfather Lloyd Orville Moss founded a business called the Truth Tapes which produced how-to vinyl records espousing advice on cultivating Catholic households. He sunk all his savings into the project, but the records didn't sell. After Lloyd lost the family home to bankruptcy in '67, his solution was to take his musical children on tour through the prairies. Lloyd billed it as a "Centennial Tour," aligning the family band as a wholesome extension of Canada’s colonial project. They didn’t succeed financially and Lloyd never recovered, forcing the family into a period of hidden homelessness. After moving his family from shelter to hotel to short-term rental multiple times over, Lloyd succumbed to alcoholism and died young, leaving his family to make homes for themselves.
This saga indelibly affected each of Lloyd’s thirteen children in various and highly personal ways, the repercussions of which extended to Lloyd’s grandchildren—myself included. While my own relative housing insecurity today stems from the circumstances of contemporary housing and rental markets and not because of my grandfather’s risk-taking entrepreneurialism, through homesick, I wonder: what does it mean to be insecurely housed as a settler? How have definitions of “home” changed over time, and what will they be in the future?
Central to the exhibition is the artist’s book Lloyd O (2021–24), which unravels an unlikely family lore. In 1959, my maternal grandfather Lloyd Orville Moss founded a business called the Truth Tapes which produced how-to vinyl records espousing advice on cultivating Catholic households. He sunk all his savings into the project, but the records didn't sell. After Lloyd lost the family home to bankruptcy in '67, his solution was to take his musical children on tour through the prairies. Lloyd billed it as a "Centennial Tour," aligning the family band as a wholesome extension of Canada’s colonial project. They didn’t succeed financially and Lloyd never recovered, forcing the family into a period of hidden homelessness. After moving his family from shelter to hotel to short-term rental multiple times over, Lloyd succumbed to alcoholism and died young, leaving his family to make homes for themselves.
This saga indelibly affected each of Lloyd’s thirteen children in various and highly personal ways, the repercussions of which extended to Lloyd’s grandchildren—myself included. While my own relative housing insecurity today stems from the circumstances of contemporary housing and rental markets and not because of my grandfather’s risk-taking entrepreneurialism, through homesick, I wonder: what does it mean to be insecurely housed as a settler? How have definitions of “home” changed over time, and what will they be in the future?
homesick (performance), 2025
duration: weekly, 11am–4pm
performance with recreated Moss Family Band costume from the Alaska Highway Birthquakes tour (produced by Lianne Zannier), glass ice-bucket, water and washcloth, the artist’s voice, and other artworks in the installation
Freddie’s cloth, 2023-24
6.75 x 8.5 inches, folded
a microfibre cloth bequeathed to the artist by their late uncle Freddie, embroidered with glass beads, placed on the rim of rinsed forget-me-nots
rinsed forget-me-nots, 2025
12.25 x 11.5 x 18 inches
a custom-made glass bucket (Jean-Simon Trottier) filled with gel wax and flower petals, placed on an antique wooden milking stool
cloying, 2024-25
variable, large approximately: 2 7/8 x 3/4 x 3/4 inches, each
variable, small approximately: 2 3/4 x 3/8 x 5/8 inches, each
clothespins made of resin, with embedded whiskers and claws (courtesy the artist’s cat) and flower petals, treated with flocking
a case, 2021-23
32.5 x 18.5 inches
a threadbare pillowcase from the artist’s maternal grandmother's home, embroidered with glass and plastic beads
a sock, 2024
30.25 x 5.5 inches
a sock worn by the artist’s musician mother, embroidered with pearls (gifted by Miriam Gil) and glass and crystal beads
Family Has Talent, But No Home, 2024-25
18 x 14.25 inches
a digitally manipulated newspaper article printed on cotton linen, treated with flocking, embroidered with thread and glass and crystal beads
Lloyd O. Moss, president, 2024-25
20 x 14.25 inches
a digitally manipulated newspaper article printed on cotton linen, treated with flocking, embroidered with thread and glass and crystal beads
Lloyd O (analog AV edition), 2021-24
audio: 13 minutes 30 seconds followed by 4 minutes 30 seconds of silence, to loop
vinyl record sleeve: 12.375 x 12.375 inches
35mm slides: 2 x 2 inches, each
to be played concurrently: an audiovisual artist’s book comprising (i) thirty-seven 35mm slides and (ii) a custom-cut vinyl record with edited audio from “TT0: If I Had Only Known” (musical accompaniment by the artist’s father)
Lloyd O (digital AV edition), 2025
14 minutes, to loop
digital recording of the analog AV edition of Lloyd O; on view during the week
Lloyd O (accessibility edition), 2025
slightly less than 8.5 x 11 inches
a large-print paper edition of Lloyd O with an accompanying audio description
Moss Family Band ephemera, 1967
various sizes
from the Moss Family Band’s ‘Alaska Highway Birthquakes’ tour
Lloyd O portrait in Pasha’s basement, 2025
5 x 7 inches
a photo of a portrait of the artist’s maternal grandfather, painted by the artist’s paternal uncle, in the basement of the artist’s auntie Pattie, taken by the artist’s cousin Adam
duration: weekly, 11am–4pm
performance with recreated Moss Family Band costume from the Alaska Highway Birthquakes tour (produced by Lianne Zannier), glass ice-bucket, water and washcloth, the artist’s voice, and other artworks in the installation
Freddie’s cloth, 2023-24
6.75 x 8.5 inches, folded
a microfibre cloth bequeathed to the artist by their late uncle Freddie, embroidered with glass beads, placed on the rim of rinsed forget-me-nots
rinsed forget-me-nots, 2025
12.25 x 11.5 x 18 inches
a custom-made glass bucket (Jean-Simon Trottier) filled with gel wax and flower petals, placed on an antique wooden milking stool
cloying, 2024-25
variable, large approximately: 2 7/8 x 3/4 x 3/4 inches, each
variable, small approximately: 2 3/4 x 3/8 x 5/8 inches, each
clothespins made of resin, with embedded whiskers and claws (courtesy the artist’s cat) and flower petals, treated with flocking
a case, 2021-23
32.5 x 18.5 inches
a threadbare pillowcase from the artist’s maternal grandmother's home, embroidered with glass and plastic beads
a sock, 2024
30.25 x 5.5 inches
a sock worn by the artist’s musician mother, embroidered with pearls (gifted by Miriam Gil) and glass and crystal beads
Family Has Talent, But No Home, 2024-25
18 x 14.25 inches
a digitally manipulated newspaper article printed on cotton linen, treated with flocking, embroidered with thread and glass and crystal beads
Lloyd O. Moss, president, 2024-25
20 x 14.25 inches
a digitally manipulated newspaper article printed on cotton linen, treated with flocking, embroidered with thread and glass and crystal beads
Lloyd O (analog AV edition), 2021-24
audio: 13 minutes 30 seconds followed by 4 minutes 30 seconds of silence, to loop
vinyl record sleeve: 12.375 x 12.375 inches
35mm slides: 2 x 2 inches, each
to be played concurrently: an audiovisual artist’s book comprising (i) thirty-seven 35mm slides and (ii) a custom-cut vinyl record with edited audio from “TT0: If I Had Only Known” (musical accompaniment by the artist’s father)
Lloyd O (digital AV edition), 2025
14 minutes, to loop
digital recording of the analog AV edition of Lloyd O; on view during the week
Lloyd O (accessibility edition), 2025
slightly less than 8.5 x 11 inches
a large-print paper edition of Lloyd O with an accompanying audio description
Moss Family Band ephemera, 1967
various sizes
from the Moss Family Band’s ‘Alaska Highway Birthquakes’ tour
Lloyd O portrait in Pasha’s basement, 2025
5 x 7 inches
a photo of a portrait of the artist’s maternal grandfather, painted by the artist’s paternal uncle, in the basement of the artist’s auntie Pattie, taken by the artist’s cousin Adam