A Corner of Home Jo Dennis
A CORNER OF HOME
Jo Dennis
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?
Jo Dennis: The week I really started to understand the impact of Covid-19 I was in London, working in my studio there and doing paid work. I returned to Amsterdam (where I live with my family) and pretty much started on the social distancing thing straight away. I am lucky to have a studio here too, but as I have only been working here for a year on and off the studio doesn't have much in the way of research materials. I have struggled to settle into this new studio – knowing that I have years of collected detritus/treasure in my London studio. It is that collective junk in my life which has been the starting point for so many of my projects and pieces in the past. The knowledge that I will not be able to return to London for the foreseeable future has spurred me into creative action in Amsterdam – I guess as an acceptance of the status quo.
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?
JD: Without the full gamut of waste materials I am used to working with, I am looking more closely at the residue left over from previous works; the sand left over from a failed cement experiment, the shards of glass from a broken window painting, old carpet we pulled up from our living room, left over prints on acetate and the fabrics I used to mop up paint.
3. Tell us about how you’ve been using photography lately? What are you making or putting in front of the lens?
JD: I am constantly taking photos on my phone, looking at compositions, looking at how a collection of colours or objects transform when framed. I have also been making lots of photos with my (real) camera, documenting work and of the details around my studio, details in paintings, light and spillages – this is for the artists book I am working on. Time feels still now, a perfect time for photography, a time for slowly piecing things together.
