How do we begin to represent the mundane?

Representations of the domestic sphere have been prolific throughout art history, with artists drawing inspiration from the world around them when developing their personal artistic language. But how do these representations of the mundane speak to the artist’s interior world?

Gosia Wlodarczak, 'Coffee Drinking 4', 2002

Historically denied from achieving a formal art education, many female artists had little choice but to create art from their immediate environments. How many of these artists represent themselves and their homes often speaks profoundly to their complicated relationship with the domestic sphere. Depictions of everyday life may seem banal, but what they reveal to us may be more disquieting - for these artists, is their home their place of safety, or is it their prisons?

Marie Mansfield - 'Discarded'

Adam Nudelman - 'Poppy's Couch'

When does the mundane become melancholic? Disuse and abandonment is a part of the lifecycle of all household items - what is brought into the home will one day become defunct. In Marie Mansfield’s ‘Discarded’, a chest of drawers lies on the kerb, no longer welcome inside the house it once belonged to. And yet, sometimes in the wake of dereliction, there is hope for renewal. Will Poppy’s hat be reclaimed? Will someone see promise in the abandoned furniture? 

Enter the family. From dutiful wives and husbands to obedient, loving children, artists throughout history have represented families as idealised archetypes - each family member a character with a role they must play. Through these artworks, however, we see the eeriness of these daily performances. Duty-bound to their families, unsettled and unsure, we see how artists have subverted representations of the ideal family to create a sense of unease.

The artistic canon has long celebrated the family unit as essential and indestructible. However, the mythologisation of the ‘nuclear family’ leaves us wondering where the idyllic stops and reality begins. 

Charles Blackman - 'Evening Primrose'

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