In the Presence of a Common Object
15 November 2025 – 1 March 2026
This new collections display in the Edlis Neeson Research Space at Kettle’s Yard explores how artists have used photography to see the world anew, curated by Dr Inga Fraser, Senior Curator (House and Collection).
The catalyst for this display was the recent acquisition of two still life polaroid photographs taken in the Kettle’s Yard house by Dorothy Bohm (1924–2023). Adding these works to the collection prompted us to explore the small number of photographs that had previously been acquired by Jim Ede and other curators, as well as the history of exhibitions of photography at Kettle’s Yard.
In these photographic works, the camera is used to frame familiar places from unexpected perspectives, the relationships between quiet objects in still life compositions are brought to our attention or rearranged to tell a different story. Photographs included by Constantin Brânçusi (1876-1957) and Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) were collected by Jim Ede, while those by Dorothy Bohm and Tim Head (b. 1946) were made at Kettle’s Yard after the Edes retired. More recent works in the display were made by artists who have previously exhibited at Kettle’s Yard, such as Sharon Kivland (b. 1955).
About the display
With nature, architecture and domestic items as their subjects, these photographs refocus our attention on the ‘common objects’ of our everyday lives. Texture, weight and materials are sensed intuitively through the two-dimensional medium of a photographic print. Kettle’s Yard founder Jim Ede described how ‘stray objects, stone, glass, pictures, sculpture, in light and in space, have been used to make manifest’ an ‘underlying stability’, which he describes as, ‘a condition of human life’. This idea, that art and beauty enabled people to move beyond their differences recurs Ede’s 1984 book about Kettle’s Yard, A Way of Life, in which photography of the house and collection plays a key role.
Ede began his career in 1921 as a photographer’s assistant at the National Gallery. In helping to record their collection of historic paintings, he was given an opportunity to study art up close. For the writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch, looking at art – and nature – provides us with an opportunity to move beyond our egotistical concerns. She described this as ‘unselfing’ in her Leslie Stephen Memorial Lecture given in November 1967 at the University of Cambridge. Contemporary writer Naomi Klein identifies Murdoch’s idea of ‘unselfing’ as increasingly important within culture today, which focuses so relentlessly on self-expression and self-improvement. Klein argues that we should be focusing our consciousness on the world beyond ourselves and the ways in which we are interconnected with that world, which she believes is an important step towards developing more peaceful and sustainable societies. A ‘common object’, therefore, is both something immediately before us, and something to aim for.
Special thanks to Monica Bohm-Duchen, Sally Coleman and Rosie Macdonald.
Gallery
Access
- The galleries, where exhibitions are shown, and all areas of the Clore Learning Studio (level -1), the Research Space (level 1) and the Ede Room (level 2) are fully accessible.
- We have wheelchair accessible toilets on the lower ground (level -1), ground and first floor (level 1).
- There is a lift giving access to all floors located past the galleries, just beside the Clore Learning Studio on the ground floor.
- Kettle’s Yard welcomes assistance and service dogs in all areas.
- We have large-print versions of the wall text available.
- We can lend visitors small folding seats for taking around exhibitions or using at non-seated events. Please ask a Visitor Assistant for help finding a seat.
