To gain a deeper understanding and a more conceptualised meaning of home*, local artist Ophelia Mikkelson has been asking others what they consider to be their key philosophies in living. *Home is considered here as both a noun and a verb; it is a physical location (noun) situated within the rooms of domestic dwellings and, more […]
Home by Ophelia Mikkelson | documenting tranquility
To gain a deeper understanding and a more conceptualised meaning of home*, local artist Ophelia Mikkelson has been asking others what they consider to be their key philosophies in living.
*Home is considered here as both a noun and a verb; it is a physical location (noun) situated within the rooms of domestic dwellings and, more intimately, as a state of being (verb) a felt response.
An excerpt from Ophelia’s thesis:
“I want to speak about beauty, about tranquillity and care, so I started emailing people on Monday mornings asking them to talk to me about these values, to describe to me where they find them. Pulling a line from each answer I took a series of photographs that could help me locate a tangible essence of (for example) tranquillity. In one response tranquillity was found ‘sitting next to the rain’, from here I did the same, following the action I too sat next to the rain, attempting to document its quality. A woman describes, in another response, that tranquillity is found when ‘my arms know what they are doing’ when her mind is not thinking, when her arms are free to swing. After reading this I observed people walking, watching their arms swing freely (or not) at their sides. I took photos of people I thought might be feeling tranquil.
Tranquillity was described, and by no surprise, found in the sea. I started to document the ocean every day as I passed over it or got near to it hoping that I would perhaps become closer to more than just its watery surface.”
Images by Ophelia Mikkelson.
