This project developed in response to being invited to a touring exhibition of artists’ collaborations. European Identity: Intercultural Dialogue was initially shown at Inselgalerie Berlin (2010) coinciding with a symposium at the European Academy Berlin and then in different venues in Poland, Italy and Spain (2010-11). “Whilst contemplating the different approaches to the theme of identity and Europe, we began to develop a strategy for our joint project, which re-examined our homes as immediate and seemingly familiar sites.”

Statement of Gardner and Thoma in Exhibition Catalogue European Identity/Identitad Europea (2011), ISBN 13: 978-84-615-2432-7

The resulting film (2010, 8:34 minutes) is based on an exchange of photographic images between Deborah Gardner and Andrea Thoma. Here everyday scenes become images of reverie as they engage with a form of journeying within a place that is both familiar and unfamiliar through the distancing lens of the camera. The edit includes a voice-over of conversations between both artists and how they responded to the project in view of their individual homes and home as a place of cultural and political significance. Journeys around the Home is both artwork and documentary as it reflects on individual forms of dwelling.

Below is a selection of Thoma’s photographs documenting light as it moves through domestic space, objects and reflections, relations between interior and exterior space, and also the exploration of home through play.