A Corner of Home Hanneke van Leeuwen
A CORNER OF HOME
Hanneke van Leeuwen
Published 18 July, 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 am currently living in Amsterdam, in the city centre between two canals. The environment, especially during lockdown, was not helping me in a psychological way. Between two canals, having no view on the world or the sky, it felt isolated. It made me feel lonely, empty inside and it felt like I was becoming anonymous in my own life. From that feeling of being anonymous and starting again from scratch, I realised that the cliché ‘home is where the heart is’, is what I needed to work on. So I returned to working on my long-term project, ODE. I started this project back in 2016 in a very personal and intuitive matter. The project is a research into being a woman, how this is viewed by society and what it means today.
2. How have you looked at the materials of home differently in the past weeks? Are there parts that have revealed themselves to you in new ways?
In 2016 I bought myself a printer in order to be able to print my own work, and to work on sketches and ideas in my own home. I had never actually used it until relatively recently. It had moved with me all these years until now, finally, after overcoming my anxieties that had been holding me back for years, one day I unpacked the printer and got to work. Through the process of working alongside three different women for this project so far, I started combining the images in one chapter.
3. Tell us about how you’ve been using photography lately? What are you making or putting in front of the lens?
The last few months have seen psychological landscapes in the world change. A dialogue has started, a collective research into our place in the world in some shape or form. Culture and rituals are passed on from one generation to the next. The layers and traces of our history that formed us are merging with the new and will be given to our future. I am currently researching how to continue the journey of ODE into new chapters and extend the conversation, to collaborate with other women and to hear and represent their stories. What binds us? It is this continuous search that allows us to discover ourselves.
