Artist’s Statement:
For as long as I can remember, I have had a preoccupation with domestic interiors. As a child, I constantly rearranged the furniture, rugs, and even functions of the rooms in my house. My long-term photographic project looks at the ways we arrange our most intimate spaces. Our tastes, personalities, quirks and culture are expressed through our décor choices – sometimes intentionally, but often without realizing bits of our most authentic selves have seeped to the surface.
In this body of work, I look closely at the images we display within the home. These diverse but venerated paintings and photographs of family, ancestors, historical figures, pets, and even celebrities seem to point to a longing for connection to community both past and present. They resonate, often humorously or uncannily, with the other objects and architecture that surround them. This collection of private spaces asks the viewer to imagine the people who inhabit them and their relationship to the portraits’ subjects.
Artist’s Bio:
Sarah Malakoff’s large-scale color photographs are examinations of the home and its psychologically charged, uncanny spaces and objects. Her work has been exhibited in both solo and group shows nationally and are included in several public and private collections. Untitled Interiors, a 16 page Artist’s Project, was published in Esopus Magazine in 2007. She has been awarded Fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 2001 and 2011 and a Traveling Fellowship from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2011. A monograph entitled Sarah Malakoff: Second Nature was published by Charta Art Books in 2013. She is Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and resides in Boston, Massachusetts.