What does “home” look like when it is not a certainty? Temporary Storage: The Belongings of Juan Manuel Montes, an installation by Camilo Ontiveros in the exhibition HOME—So Different, So Appealing, examines what it looks like to be suddenly forced to abandon a way of life.

For the original version of Temporary Storage in 2009, Ontiveros gathered his own possessions—a mattress, a bicycle, suitcases, clothes, and other household items—and bundled them with ropes and plastic, evoking the domestic cargo often seen in the beds of pickup trucks in Mexico.

A Different Twist
To make the iteration of Temporary Storage on view in HOME, the artist re-created the installation with the belongings of Juan Manuel Montes, a 23-year-old student who was granted protected status by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program but was deported to Mexico in 2017. Ontiveros got in touch with Montes’s mother for access to the objects in the student’s room. You can see a robe, a suit, boxing gloves, a basketball, and other items strapped to a bed and balanced precariously on a pair of sawhorses.

Hit “play” for a closer look at Temporary Storage: The Belongings of Juan Manuel Montes.

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See more in “HOME—So Different, So Appealing,” on view in the Law Building through January 21.