When South Australian filmmaker Maddie Grammatopoulos began work on the multi-awardwinning short film Which Made This Place Home, she set out to answer one question: what makes a house a home? As the filmmaking process progressed, the role household objects played became increasingly clear. “Objects are just things we can touch, smell and see,” she explains. “But ultimately it’s the moments we share in their presence and the memories we attach to them that make them so significant.”
Which Made This Place Home takes on the viewpoint of household objects, quietly observing family interactions taking place around them. While the film is projected into the gallery, to provide a physically immersive experience items from the film set are also arranged within the space. These include a velvet orange couch, bed sheets and a round table. All the objects feature in the final scenes of the film, which is partly inspired by the artist’s own family experiences.
“Which Made This Place Home is a poetic, experimental short film, built from a series of moments within the life of a fictional family over a 30-year period,” Grammatopoulos says. “Each scene of the film is written around a repeated item, scent or sound within the family home. Experimental in its structure, in the film we see how the memories connected to different objects and senses change as our experiences differ and evolve.”
Originally exhibited in Refractions, the 2021 Carclew Sharehouse SALA exhibition, the film features actor Luca Sardelis and includes an original score by Adelaide-based international musician Motez. “It really lays the foundation for this thoughtful piece,” says Grammatopoulos. “We built this film to make audiences feel nostalgic, connected and reflective.”
Which Made This Place Home
Maddie Grammatopoulos
Praxis Art Space
22 September—14 October
This article was originally published in the September/October 2022 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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