Interior Matter: Photography, Spaces, Selves

ABSTRACT

This introductory article maps out the relationship between life writing and interiors. It examines the connections between interior spaces, interior matter and interior selves and foregrounds how interiorities are shaped across material and visual cultures. It takes as a springboard the work of life writing and auto/biography scholars who have expanded the limits of what is considered autobiographical practice and reoriented the field beyond the textual. Using Justine Varga’s photograph Maternal Line as a point from which to think about interiority and the representation of life, the article then outlines how the contributors to this special issue explore the thematic of interiors with a focus on the visual and material. The article highlights the importance of the background fabric of daily life for understandings of interior things, spaces and selves. It argues that addressing interior matter, spaces and selves requires noticing the many entanglements between them.

KEYWORDS:

• Photography
• interiors
• matter
• domestic

Notes on contributor

Jane Simon is a Lecturer in media at Macquarie University in Sydney whose work encompasses both creative practice and traditional academic research. She researches and teaches in film studies, visual cultural studies, and photography. Her current research is focused on the role of photography and cinema in refiguring understandings of autobiography, domestic space, and interiority.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Schneemann’s Interior Scroll 2 (1975) performance where she paints her nude body and then proceeds to read the text from a piece of coiled paper that she slowly pulls from her vagina, is also interesting to consider in light of the theme of this special issue. The piece of life writing that Schneemann reads, as she exteriorising the interior, is one where she recalls a conversation with another filmmaker and describes the dismissal of her films for their ‘personal clutter,’ ‘ persistence of feelings’, ‘hand-touch sensibility,’ ‘diaristic indulgence’ and ‘painterly mess’ (Serra and Ramey 2007, 121).

2 My thanks to the anonymous reviewer for drawing attention to this.

3 Members of this group include Jeannine Baker, Peter Doyle, Jo Faulkner, Julie-Ann Long, Willa McDonald, Karen Pearlman and Kate Rossmanith. Nicole Matthews and I are grateful to these members for maintaining such a collegial and inspiring space for the discussion on and around interiors.