Ideal homes/artificial horizons

Notes to accompany an exhibition at the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, by artist Rupert Griffiths. Rupert was artist in residence at MoDA from the summer of 2006. He started by exploring the collections, which provide a fascinating document - in images, books, magazines, and photographs of real homes, among other things - of the development of the domestic interior from the nineteenth century to the present day. From Griffiths's research emerged a concern with the relations between popular and professional discourses on the design of the interior, the built materiality of the interiors themselves, and the lived social experiences of these spaces. In response, he produced an installation which explores the experience and construction of a sense of 'self' and individual identity within interior space.