A Corner of Home Nicolas Haeni
A CORNER OF HOME
Nicolas Haeni
Published 17 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 staying at my girlfriend’s place in Lausanne. I usually live in Paris but I escaped to Switzerland as soon as the lockdown started in France to be with my family. These days the whole apartment has become my studio. It is a nice, cozy flat, and I'm discovering every one of its corners; looking for objects that inspire me, and for ideas of installations.
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'm looking at materials and objects around me the way I usually do. I've always been obsessed with everyday objects, because they tell stories about human habits. When I'm using an object for a picture, I'm using something that belongs to somebody and that has been eroded by them, so that becomes unique. Basically, I'm talking about people through their own objects. Of course some items are more interesting because of their shape, colour, strangeness and appeal to be a picture. I like to think that by using them for my sculptures, I give them another function or personality.
3. Tell us about how you’ve been using photography lately? What are you making or putting in front of the lens?
These last few days I’ve been working on a project I started since the beginning of my quarantine. It's called One sculpture a day keeps the virus away. The principle is to only use objects that I find at my girlfriend’s place and make one installation per day that I document by taking a photo and a video. The restrictions that the virus imposes on me fit well with my personal work and force me to be more creative, which is really exciting. Moreover, since I have a limited time to build the sculpture, it encourages me to be more spontaneous and reagent.
