This photograph forms part of Janina Green’s series, Vacuum (1993). The 14 chromogenic prints that make up this series juxtapose found images of idealistic modernist home interiors with Green’s own photographs, which mostly depict a single female figure in shadow or silhouette. Often performing domestic tasks such as ironing or folding sheets, Green’s female figure rejects stereotypical representations of the perfect housewife, and instead turns these picturesque domestic settings into surreal spaces of monotony, isolation and despair. In ‘Untitled (stain)’, the female form has been replaced by a large and foreboding carpet stain that sullies an otherwise pristine living room. Exploring themes around femininity, domesticity and labour, Vacuum highlights feminist issues that have long been at the centre of Green’s photographic practice.

This series also highlights Green’s experimental approach to her photographic practice. To create these works, Green scanned images she had found in home decorating magazines of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. She used an early version of Adobe Photoshop (2.5) to layer these with her own black-and-white photographs that she had taken with her large-format camera. Green then had the files turned into 35 mm colour negatives, which were printed using analogue techniques. This technique illustrates Green’s desire to experiment with and intervene in the photographic process.

(2019)