There is a sculptural quality in the make-up of Lee Materazzi’s photographs, attributed to her studies at Central Saint Martins in London where she completed her degree in sculpture. The photographs are based in everyday life, though Materazzi transcends the documentarian quality of life to elevated concepts about living. The photographs take the mundane tasks and chores of our existence and express the way in which they affect our consciousness.
Gilad Segal writes in Lee Materazzi: Spaces with Meaning: “Through a series of staged compositions, the artist presents a world that is both familiar and strange. Materazzi captures commonplace events and activities that we all must do, for example, preparing food and doing the laundry. However, the fact that the artist has chosen to take these moments and slow them down until they are perfectly still and in front of us is unique. For most of us, domestic responsibilities are things that we must do, not things that we choose to do. They are activities that we race to finish so that we can do something else, and we almost always do them alone. Yet, these photographs are so much more than mere everyday moments elevated to art. The artist is interested in how we add meaning to these events and the effect that these responsibilities have on our personality. Each photograph is a study and a personal reflection on conformity, triumph, and failure.”
Materazzi herself adds “My work is prompted by ordinary routines and objects within my daily life; a chair, a favorite blouse, a living room, or simply eating breakfast in the morning. I am interested in our ability to imbue such everyday practices and spaces with meaning, and equally the emotional impact that these actions and spaces then have on our psyche. Through the manipulation of these relationships my work takes form.”
