A Corner of Home Benjamin Swanson
A CORNER OF HOME
Benjamin Swanson
Published 29 April, 2020
In the days that have passed and the days that are to come, we'll all be spending more time indoors. A Corner of Home collects photographic studies and new works made by artists in their immediate environments; small snapshots of the impulse to create.
Edited by Trine Stephensen and Joanna Cresswell
1. Where are you living at the moment and how has that environment shaped you creatively? Can you tell us about a favourite detail of this place and why?
I live in Peckham in a flat with my dog and my girlfriend. We are quite lucky as we have a garden, which is of course the favourite place right now! Although my practice is traditionally studio still life I try to take my inspiration from natural occurrences to light. Our flat and the current weather is playing a big part in the change in my aesthetic.
2. How have you looked at the materials of home differently in the past weeks? Are there parts of it that have revealed themselves to you in new ways?
I have always believed that the best subject matter can be right under your nose. This has been really tested lately working with domestic objects. I am used to working commercially with clean and new materials, whereas at home things are scuffed, used and battered. This has been a challenge, but also revealed some qualities to materials, which I admit I have overlooked or would never have considered.
3. Tell us about how you’ve been using photography lately? What are you making or putting in front of the lens?
I have been thinking about materials in a way which ruminates upon the lives of objects before and after we come into contact with them. This has been a muse for ongoing projects for a while now, which has been under the working title "The Isolation Of Objects" (I am aware that the title is much more fitting now!). Since working from home, I have been focusing on reflective materials or objects that have an iridescent quality in order to try and reflect the outside world (light from the sky, green from the trees, a lamp in the corner). By doing this, I am playing with the unique, disconnected relationship we have with the outside world from our little isolation bubbles.
