The shore, the race, the other place

For some time now, I have been drawn to thinking about my life as a migrant to Tasmania. It ’s odd; how long it can take to realise that the subtle undercurrent of difference that has pervaded my life here could be used more purposefully as a tool for critical thinking.

The physical displacement of migration is often accompanied by a mental one when the thoughts, feelings and associations attached to one place are removed to another, new place. The artist and theorist Mieke Bal describes this dual physical and mental displacement as a heterochronic experience of time or, a disruption in the regular flow of time. My interpretation of this is that, as a migrant, I am perpetually aware of two (or more) time zones; the time of the old place and the time of the new place.

How can the time of the migrant be made in a painting?