Small things we call home

Logbook entry 20 June 2025

For most us, the meaning of home lies in the things that surround us. While exploring the notion of home, wrestling with the tension between an inner and outer sense of place, Thierry Mandon’s Inside Outside exhibition photos (2021) resurfaced. 

If you are not familiar with Mandon’s work, in 2015 he performed a striking piece, perched high on a building’s outer wall. A bed and table, cut and bolted to a partly demolished house’s facade, cradled him as he read a book. This work highlights the precariousness of human habits and the absurdity of chasing normalcy in unstable settings. Yet, it also echoes Mandon’s recurring theme of seeking “a stable unity between humans and their environment.” To me, his work is a surreal tribute to the routines and small things that we desperately hang onto to anchor our sense of home. The bed and table carry the weight of familiarity—objects that, in an ordinary home, anchor our vital routines such as resting or eating. There is universal emotional resonance in his work, even when the physical “home” is literally crumbling.  

Those small things we call home—objects, daily rituals—are fragments that weave together a sense of safety. They remind us that home goes beyond the physical place, it is a feeling, crafted from the personal and the everyday.

Mandon’s work begs the question: what would you cling to if your home were falling apart? For me, the answer is humbling—more than I’d like to admit. I can’t help but think of the many small things I tend to hang onto ...  the trusted pillow from a home flight to an overnight train journey, or an escape in the wilderness spent in a tent. I think of the beautiful bed I fall into every night, the fresh flowers bouquet on the kitchen table that reminds me to simply exist—small  things that nurture my inner world, grounding my sense of home.

Mandon's art fuels my own desire to reframe the concept of home, woven from both the intangible and the small, cherished things that bring us home to ourselves. By cultivating an inner sanctuary, our refuge remains unshaken regardless of circumstances. It's a sanctuary that doesn’t shy away from discomfort but embraces it. It's not that easy, is it?

References

Ebert, Grace. 2021. Artist Thierry Mandon Lives in Suspended Domestic Scenes Within the Ghost Rooms of Severed Buildings. This Is Colossal

Accessed June 2025, available https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/09/thierry-mandon-performance-art/