Gilbert & George (b. 1943 & 1942)

As Laura Cumming states "The marvelous Dusty Corners, haunting checkerboards of interiors in which each artist appears alone in a shadowy room, alternating upstairs and downstairs with the oppressively vacant chambers of their house, the world before, and as it seems after, they were here."("Better Than a Poke in the Eye," The Observer, London, February 18, 2007).
These dusty corners are the artists' own, as they are repeated spaces from their home and studio on Fournier Street in East London. As is seen throughout Gilbert & George's earlier work, the process of representing and living through melancholia is both emotional and physically palpable in these fusty, dank corners.
Indeed it is imperative to see how only through these early personal works, Gilbert & George are allowed to transcend from the dusty corners into larger, broader themes. Their work is based on the reaction to the idea that all artwork is somehow removed from the artist, because if they can do their Drinking Sculptures drunk and moody, then surely they can work through their Dusty Corners as they begin the process of renovating and stripping their exterior and mentally interior spaces.