Home Body (2023)

Video exploring daily routines and the loss of third places through spoken-word and experimental film.

In Home Body, Henriquez touches on the effects of long commutes, workdays, and the loss of third places through spoken-word, film, and performance. Throughout the video work, she acts out the process of winding down after her daily routine with a touch of artifice. The artist questions if the current version of a work-life balance is truly mentally sustainable, considering that we spend more time at school or work than at home. It is a questioning of how society views life as a whole: are we living or telling ourselves that we are? The work is presented as though it is being viewed through the screen of a camera which was brought into the four walls of her bedroom, adding to the idea that we have boxed ourselves into our vision of life that we forget to live it. The title, Home Body is a play on the word “homebody” to reflect the relationship between ourselves and our home as well as whether we feel at home in our bodies when we are not in control of our lives.