“Homesick,” a solo exhibition by Camila Mancilla at the District Architecture Center in Washington, D.C., blends surrealism and architectural theory to reveal the complex nature of home. Mancilla challenges the traditional view of the home as a space linked to health and well-being, proposing instead that our homes also reflect our illnesses and mortality.

“Today, homesickness is no longer a medical diagnosis nor a life-threatening condition; it is a term used to describe a temporary longing for one’s place of origin or a place where one once felt joy,” said Mancilla, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design who is studying architecture at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center. “Homesickness can thus be understood as an affliction caused by a lost architecture — a structure that exists only in dreams and memories, yet remains absent in the current moment, preserved only in the past.”

Composed of collages and architectural fragments, each piece in the “Homesick” exhibition serves as both a physical and emotional map, where fragmentation not only destroys but also reveals new experiences.

Mancilla utilizes found objects, cutouts from books and magazines, and digital drawings and paintings to create her original works. Through the act of cutting, she transforms spaces into stages: "The home becomes a stage where memory, nostalgia, and illness intertwine."

“These works explore the vulnerability of the home, confronting its ability to both heal and sicken,” Mancilla said. "Cutting interrupts, but it also creates a new way to see or experience what remains.”

How: The “Homesick” exhibition is composed of three variations of collage techniques, all rooted in the method of cutting printed existing media and adhering them to a surface. Mancilla calls the techniques "collage modeling," "photo assemblage," and "film collage." All of the works use recycled paper materials, combined with printed images to create new compositions that challenge the viewer's perception of space and memory.

When: Now through Friday, Jan. 10, 2025

Where: District Architecture Center, 421 Seventh St. NW, Washington, D.C.

Who: Mancilla is a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design who is studying architecture at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center. Her work and research focus on cutting architecture and employing methods such as collage, photomontage, and assemblage to explore theories and philosophies within the architectural discipline.

The artist’s three favorite works

“The process of making this three-dimensional collage was highly dynamic and performative, requiring me to move around the piece to decide on the placement of each image. The assembly felt like a dance — starting from the center and pasting cutouts one after another. The inspiration came from imagining a rock crashing into the earth, distorting the cityscape in its wake. My goal was for the viewer to feel a sense of vertigo, mimicking the disorientation I experienced during the creation process.”
“City Billis,” 2024, 19-by-19-by-3, collage modeling. Photo courtesy of Camila Mancilla.

“The process of making this three-dimensional collage was highly dynamic and performative, requiring me to move around the piece to decide on the placement of each image. The assembly felt like a dance — starting from the center and pasting cutouts one after another. The inspiration came from imagining a rock crashing into the earth, distorting the cityscape in its wake. My goal was for the viewer to feel a sense of vertigo, mimicking the disorientation I experienced during the creation process.”

“This piece explores the idea of opening facades of vaguely defined houses and buildings, exposing a hidden world that feels both saturated and ‘contaminated’ from within. For this piece, I used Midjourney AI to blend high-density images from cities in places such as China. The overlaying of distorted cuts and drawings, such as a sink from a bathroom interior, evokes a mixture of familiarity and discomfort, leading viewers to experience the uncanny in a Freudian sense.”
“Visceral Voyeur,” 2024, 20-by-26-by-1, photo assemblage. Photo courtesy of Camila Mancilla.

“This piece explores the idea of opening facades of vaguely defined houses and buildings, exposing a hidden world that feels both saturated and ‘contaminated’ from within. For this piece, I used Midjourney AI to blend high-density images from cities in places such as China. The overlaying of distorted cuts and drawings, such as a sink from a bathroom interior, evokes a mixture of familiarity and discomfort, leading viewers to experience the uncanny in a Freudian sense.”

“I scanned and printed images on film positive transparencies and used epoxy to simultaneously conceal the layers and bind them together as one cohesive whole. The overlap of city maps on two plexiglass sheets fractures the idealized images below — representations of the ‘typical ideal house’ common in 1940’s real estate architecture. The ‘sharpener,’ the shadow projected by the upper plexiglass layer, creates a sense of disruption, inviting the viewer to reflect on how fragile and fragmented idealized images of home and urban life can be.”
“Sharpener,” 2024, 48-by-48-by-1, film collage. Photo courtesy of Camila Mancilla.

“I scanned and printed images on film positive transparencies and used epoxy to simultaneously conceal the layers and bind them together as one cohesive whole. The overlap of city maps on two plexiglass sheets fractures the idealized images below — representations of the ‘typical ideal house’ common in 1940’s real estate architecture. The ‘sharpener,’ the shadow projected by the upper plexiglass layer, creates a sense of disruption, inviting the viewer to reflect on how fragile and fragmented idealized images of home and urban life can be.”

Written by Ashley Falat, a junior communications major at Virginia Tech

A woman sits at a cluttered desk with her back to the camera.
Camila Mancilla at work. Photo courtesy of Camila Mancilla.

Contact:

Tags

Share this story