March Winds
Close isn’t Home: March Winds is a collaborative Residency project between Grace Kwon and Samantha Vassor of Close isn’t Home and Lina Deng, Kathy Guo, Lucia Nguyen, Alfred Marasigan, and Vanessa Opoku.
Close isn’t Home wanted to take the opportunity within the Digital Artist Residency to connect with other individuals online and extend an open call invitation to other BIPOC people interested in similar digital art principles. Throughout the months of March and April of 2021, Close isn’t Home met with everyone individually to discuss their digital art ideas as it relates to identity, culture, and art accessibility in non-western traditions.
Close isn’t Home: March Winds is a virtual 3D environment that focuses on ideas of transformation, seasonal shifts, our connections with objects as it relates to changing times, and the positivity that can accompany change. Read more about our collaborators below!
About Close isn't Home:
Close isn’t Home (@closeisnthome) is an online 3D resource platform by and for BIPOC creatives interested in creating more accessibility to ‘niche’, culturally-specific representation in open-source 3D libraries. Their account has consisted of digital art skillshares and collaborations, video workshops and live-streams, an open-source 3D object library, and resource lists all catered towards creating accessibility of digital art for BIPOC experiences.
Close isn't Home is led by Samantha Vassor and Grace Kwon. We are two interdiscplinary designers focused on 3D design/animation. The name Close isn’t Home came from the idioms Byen Pre Pa Lakay (being close to home is not the same as being home) and 그림의 떡(a picture of rice cake)- used to describe something you desire but cannot have. Both untranslatable idioms in the our second languages (Haitian Creole and Korean) refer to the close yet far relationship to home.
We wanted to stress close yet distanced relations with 3D objects and ideologies of human identity. Close isn't Home was created to celebrate the specificity of cultural differences and the representation of non-western design aesthetics in media.
Close isn't Home 3D Library
The Open-Source Library is a free resource for 3D objects that are culturally and regionally specific. We want to share 3D objects and files as digital artists, especially with BIPOC, because we realize the limited accessibility of 3D models and 3D animations. The library also consists of generous donations from numerous creatives. The context and creator of each object are in each respective folder. You can find the models here.
