'Long time dead' and 'Thinking about things'

A pair of essays on the sculptural/photographic/video practice and research of artist Debra Swann. The first piece was commissioned by London gallery Space Station 65, and the second developed as a result of Swann's solo show in Nottingham Trent University's Bonington Gallery. It focused on her attention to ideas of narrative; to the domestic and the post-industrial, and to questions of gender, labour and craft; it also considered the way works shift when brought into conversation with one another and the importance of specific sites in producing work and ideas. Keywords: sculpture; site; practice; artistic research; things; narrative; labour; gender; craft