LOCKDOWN LIVING ROOM

When the pandemic hit Ian Berry found himself unable to travel. This wouldn’t be so bad, his studio is within his East London home.

The problem was, artist Ian Berry works from photoshoots he sets up. The first week of lockdown in the UK coincided what was supposed to be a week of shoots of people’s house.

‘I’d got two years of museum shows lined up and all the pans went out of the window.’ Ian Berry added.

It soon hit him though, having lived in many countries he always looked elsewhere for inspiration.

‘When I lived in Sweden I would fly to London to base work from, then in London, LA.’

Ian Berry now saw and appreciated what was around him more and noted he often would previously say ‘people would love coming to the studio and my home and seeing that as much as seeing thew work’. Berry lives in the former Spratt’s Pet food factory in East London.

He set about recreating his home in all denim, from his Chesterfield sofa, the mirrors, plants and albums he would listen to.

The installation was shown first in Splendid Isolation in the Netherlands and Museum Rijswijk in 2019/2020 and has been recreated for the Material World Exhibition at Textil Museet. Sweden.

It’s not only in a 3D installation format, you can also see the to scale ‘painting’ in denim at Textil Museet.

There’s also a denim record player that can play the albums connected to the denim history - which coincidently is some of Ian Berry’s favourites.