The small and seemingly banal utilitarian implements that facilitate human existence have their place in the home and are universally taken for granted. But for the mother on the move, forced to fold an entire home into a suitcase, space and weight is critical. How does she decide what to pack and what to leave behind? Against the monumental impossibility of this task, size and scope collapse into a portable representation of home and its meaning.

For most of her artistic career, Abid has packed symbols of motherhood—often reflecting her own experiences—into her work. She uses her artistic practice to pry open the dicult and taboo conversations about universal conditions that go unmentioned. In Searching for Home, her exploration of these symbols brings awareness to the precarious status of statelessness and displacement, particularly for women and children.