Joi Murugavell
Many Ways Home

Many Ways Home, a personal journey for Joi Murugavell who was born in Malaysia, spent her early adulthood in New Zealand, then moved to Australia for 12 years and in 2023 moved to France. When asked by ICON Singapore what Many Ways Home meant to the artist she replied "Home is where I find a logic system that resonates with me, it’s never been a place. So home could be with my pen pal @applecatjam, an artist and teacher who lives in Taiwan. When I talk to him I often feel at home and he’s become one of my many ways to feel at home. That is the best example I can think of to explain ‘Many Ways Home’. There are other explanations lurking in my head, but I don’t have words for them yet. The sort of words that can be the truth anyway”.

The exhibition was set up to give a feeling of a labyrinth of memories. Joi dedicated a wall of drawings to friends and family from Malaysia and Singapore who attended the opening night, at some point she wondered where she’d met some of the smiling familiar faces of friends and if they knew each other.