Desire, Pain and the Space Between reflects on how domestic objects can create a series of interventions, becoming obstacles and opportunities to both thrive and enable conflict.

Wife and husband, Astrid Zala and James Anley, explore the relationships created with and between domestic objects, examining the meaning of rituals and the subtle balance in constant play.

Zala’s work mocks the notion of the wholesomeness of the home and unquestioned service to the household – a domain where the feminine typically, and stereotypically, resides. Having always had a strong relationship with homemaking and the assumed nurturing that comes with it, she introduces a physical or psychological disruptor to contradict or animate these expectations.

Anley appropriates objects related to the domestic environment giving them an overgrown, uncanny beauty. His work expresses an ironic, ambivalent relationship contrasting the safe, nurturing environment that the word home and repetitive domestic rituals imply.

Their individual and collaborative pieces highlight the invisible significance that each machine and every act of domestic care has in the bigger dance of finding balance within ever evolving family relationships.