The Grammar of Home

The Grammar of Home presents photographs of objects and places that collectively attempt to map out an idea of home; a concept that is universally held but is somewhat incommunicable and unique to each of us.

You can picture a house. You can imagine its constituent parts and associated objects, the actions and routines carried out within its walls. A child can outline a shape that most would say is a house. But how do you show home? How do you use the right words, forms and shapes; a vocabulary that truly illustrates the meaning of home? How do you share the feeling of home? Is it possible to show our instinct of and yearning for home? 

The Grammar of Home presents photographs of objects and places that collectively attempt to map out an idea of home; a concept that is universally held but is somewhat incommunicable and unique to each of us. I have recently left one home and built a new one; returning to Ireland after many years abroad. I have felt the responsibility to get this right as a father of young children. As this work unfolded, a visual language of primary colours and rudimentary shapes came from somewhere deep within my psyche and I was reminded of forgotten moments, beloved toys and much-watched television programmes from my own childhood. I have come to understand that these formative memories are enmeshed with my personal definition of home and I reenact and revisit them here through photography. I have found solace and comfort in exploring my internal image of home and hope that this has been projected outwards onto the domestic environment I have created for my children.

So far, the work has been presented as an artist’s book. Mirroring the form and scale of the Ladybird series of children’s books, the twenty-six photographs in this edition are offered to be read as a collection of individual elements, a visual ABC of sorts, and also as a narrative whole. An open-ended reading is facilitated through the book’s concertina format and much like the idea of home, the reader is invited to make their own decisions on how to navigate and experience it. A full flick-through of the book can been viewed on my website here.