Jill Tate & Matt Denham
'Degrees of Freedom'
Jill Tate and Matt Denham are two Newcastle-based artists who collaborated under the name 'Place Holder'. Their project Degrees of Freedom (2021–2023) explores the relationship between home, domestic environments and the wider world. They are interested in how the spaces we inhabit influence our thoughts and emotions, and how our internal psychological environments can also affect the way we experience physical spaces.
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Tate's work focuses mainly on painting architectural and domestic interiors. She creates miniature models of rooms, photographs them to use as references for her paintings. Her work often uses earthy, orange colours and simplified architectural forms.
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Denham works with video, photography and installation. His practice explores memory, architecture, the environment and the ways people interact with the spaces around them.
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Although they work in different mediums, they share an interest in how physical environments influence human experience.
Degrees of Freedom (2021-2023)
"Place Holder is a collaborative duo of visual artists Jill Tate and Matt Denham. Our inaugural body of work Degrees of Freedom (2021-23) reconsiders home, domesticity and labour: from the external environments we inhabit to the psychological structures that shape our experiences. The physical spaces we generate are affected by our state of mind, and our state of mind is in turn affected by the environments we encounter. These internal and external worlds can fluctuate between comfort and fear; calmness and isolation; influenced by perceptible and imperceptible forces beyond our control. The work manifests in dramatically illuminated, stark and minimal interiors born of terracotta and concrete: materials with mixed connotations of earth and architecture, wellness and work. Through the manipulation of scale and a feedback of forms, the work explores the different psychological dimensions of our environments."
The project focuses on the idea of home, domesticity, and labour, considering these ideas at different scales, from the mind and the individual home to the wider planet. Rather than presenting realistic domestic spaces, Tate and Denham created minimal environments using materials such as terracotta and concrete. These materials also have associations with both the natural world and architecture, creating an immediate connection between the two.
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The artists created models of items such as chairs, sofas, desks, bookshelves, and picture frames, which were then photographed and filmed to create the imagery used throughout the project. These objects were repeatedly rearranged into different compositions, allowing the same physical elements to produce completely different environments and feelings.
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The title 'Degrees of Freedom' refers to the number of independent ways a set of variables can change. This idea is reflected in the artists' process, as they took a limited number of objects and explored the different ways they could be positioned and connected.
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The artists also constructed reconfigurable walls containing different apertures, which could function as windows or thresholds between spaces. They also reused these openings within different scenes, changing their meaning through variations in objects, lighting, and composition. This creates connections between otherwise separate environments and makes the boundaries between spaces feel less fixed.​
Jill Tate, Hardly Working, 2022.
In Hardly Working, Jill Tate explores a simplified domestic workspace through architectural forms and everyday furniture. The composition is carefully constructed, with objects arranged within a minimal interior. The architectural structure creates a sense of enclosure, making the viewer feel as though they are looking into a contained domestic environment. The simplified shapes and controlled perspective give the painting an almost model-like appearance, rather than representing a completely realistic room.
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I find the composition interesting because the space feels carefully organised, but also slightly unfamiliar. By reducing the amount of detail, Tate encourages the viewer to focus on the relationship between the objects and the architecture rather than the individual items themselves.
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Tate uses a restricted, earthy colour palette. These colours create a connection to natural materials such as clay, soil and stone, despite the painting representing an indoor environment. The limited palette also makes the composition feel unified, with the different objects appearing to belong to the same environment.
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Light plays an important role throughout all of Tate's work. In 'Hardly Working', an implied doorway allows soft light to fall across the workspace. This creates contrast between illuminated and darker areas, giving the interior depth and atmosphere.
I think the use of light is particularly important because it suggests a connection to another space beyond the immediate room. Although the viewer is looking at an enclosed interior, the light implies that something exists beyond its boundaries. This makes me further consider how natural light entering a home can connect the indoor environment with the weather, time of day and landscape outside.
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I think 'Hardly Working' explores the relationship between people and the domestic environments they inhabit. Although the room is presented without a visible person, the furniture and everyday objects suggest human activity and routines. The title also makes me consider the relationship between work, rest and the way people use their homes.
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Tate's wider work explores the idea of home at different scales, from the mind to the buildings we inhabit and the planet we share. This makes the painting more than just a representation of an interior. It encourages the viewer to think about how physical surroundings can influence psychological experiences, and how a place can feel either comforting or restrictive.
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I find this artwork particularly interesting in relation to my theme of connection because it demonstrates how an interior environment can be influenced by something beyond its physical boundaries. The light entering the room suggests a relationship between the enclosed domestic space and the outside world.
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I am also interested in the human connection to these environments. Our homes are places where we develop routines, memories and emotions, meaning that the spaces we inhabit can influence our behaviour and sense of belonging.
What I find interesting about this work is the idea that the relationship between people and their environments is not one-directional - Tate and Denham explore how the spaces we inhabit can influence our thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, but also how we shape and alter the environments around us. This makes rhe environments feel less like a passive setting and more like something that exists in a constant relationship with us.
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This has helped me think further about my own idea of connections between indoor and outdoor spaces. I had initially been thinking about how the two environments physically influence and enter into each other, but their work has made me consider the psychological relationship between them as well. The way we can experience an environments can change depending on how we feel, while the environment itself can also affect our mood and behaviour.
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I am interested in exploring this idea through the relationship between the natural world outside and the constructed environments we create inside. We bring elements of the outside into our homes through plants, flowers, light, and views through windows, while we also change the outdoor environment through buildings, paths, gardens, and other human interventions. This means that the two are constantly influencing one another rather than existing separately.
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The way Tate and Denham manipulate and reconstruct environments also makes me think about how our surroundings can reflect the people within them. I had already started exploring this idea within my project through the use of personal objects to show a human connection and so I can continue this idea by thinking deeper into the concept of traces instead of simple objects. Things like evidence of people inhabiting their spaces - indoor or outdoor - to further the connection.
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This research therefore gives me another direction to consider in my project. I still want to investigate how the two environments connect physically and I am at a point in the project where narrowing down the concept is important, however, I am also interested in the psychological side of the connections which is something I can show alongside the physical element in the same kind of images.