A Corner of Home Elena Guidi
A CORNER OF HOME
Elena Guidi
Published 27 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'm living in a house that belonged to my grandmother, that is also the house where my father spent his childhood. When I was a child I used to spend a lot of time here too, but I only have a few memories of it. Most of the ones I have are from more recent times. In this house I started working intensely on photography. Loneliness gave me a lot of time to think about life and about my work as a photographer. I can definitely say that I’ve always had an important connection with this house and if you ask me to make a choice, my favourite thing about this place is the way the light flows through the windows. Each room has its own peculiarity at a certain time of the day and moving from one to another is like entering a different world.
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?
Quarantine has a certain connection with my work. I know it sounds extreme, but to work properly I always need silence, solitude and I have to focus on what I'm doing; I need to be face to face with the things that surround me. A work yet to be published consists of a collection of images from various spaces: bedrooms, kitchens, waiting rooms... they are all empty, without a trace of human being. With some objects I have always experienced the same intense relationship. When facing a subject, I feel like it has its own story to tell. Generally speaking, I'm very interested in what, for me, represents a strong symbolism, something that allows me to talk about other things. And even if my way of working isn’t changed, I can say that the current situation emphasizes these dynamics.
3. Tell us about how you’ve been using photography lately? What are you making or putting in front of the lens?
Over the years I have come to understand that my images are all related to some aspects of life, including those we generally try to avoid. Sometimes I focus on individual issues, other times I'm interested in a more “collective perspective”, but in the end, I don't want to completely separate these two features. From this point of view my thoughts have become more intense during these days. We have never experienced an historical moment like this one and everyone is living it in a different way: for some it's easier, for others it’s extremely difficult; for some people every day is simply a matter of expectation, while for others it's a struggle to survive or even eat. I can definitely say that in this period all my images are trying to catch things that remind me of these different feelings.
