Lebanese photographer and video director Rasha Khalil explains pieces from her first solo show - a series of furtive 'stolen images' at The Running Horse Gallery.

'Caledonian Road, N7, London 2'
'I completed an MA in Communication Art & Design at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2009. The same year, I launched my photo-blog and started exposing my work as a photographer, a passion I had been developing for a long time and that imposed itself upon my life [Rasha has exhibited internationally, most notably at the Royal Academy of Arts (GSK Contemporary), at the British Film Institute and at the SLICK contemporary art fair in Paris]. I always keep a camera in my bag and usually work with silver film. I've always taken pictures as an attempt to capture and retain everyday life moments, like a diary. To me, there is no such thing as banal. My intention as an artist is to make it sublime. I am interested in the instances of tension that exist within ordinary moments. They are 'the cusp' of a narrative that can't be read, but inferred; rarely understood, but felt.'

'Hackney Wick, E9, London'
'The 'In your home' project started in 2008, almost by chance. I was at a friend's place in Berlin. He once left me there by myself as he went out to buy something. This is how I got the idea to take a self-portrait in this space in a very furtive, intuitive way. As the self-timer on the camera was running, I had no time to think of the light, the composition, the pose... As a result, some photographs can turn out to be blurred, under/over exposed... The lens is my mirror, my eye. After this experience, when I had been left alone in someone's house, or room, even if for a few fleeting moments, I developed the habit of whipping out my compact 35mm camera and shooting myself in domestic spaces without the host's knowledge. I have used bedside tables, piles of books and wardrobes as makeshift tripods, and placed myself in the domestic space in a spontaneous way.'

'Caledonian Road, N7, London'
My pictures are testimonies of relationships, past or present, lasting or completely over. I'm trying to create an overlap of the encountered domestic space and that of the displaced body, an overlap of two perceived 'privates' that will all be rendered public during the exhibition.  I invite the viewer to closely watch my appropriation of people's homes, although the home is foreign to me, as one wouldn't expect in terms of self-portraiture. It seems to me that private, domestic spaces can have as much personality as a body. Private spaces refer to the person that lives in it, so I'm interested in the way people are going to react to such a collision of realities.'

'Potterells Farmhouse, AL9, Hertforshire'
'This series captures the passing of time, the evolution of my body through weight fluctuation, hair colour and cut, tanning marks, tattoos adding up... I reckon that we are what we  experience, and that body evolves through social relations.  In this project, I use my body as a work tool, but it's never idealised. It holds somthing vulnerable and very human. 'In your home' is not introspective research but an attempt to commune with a space. My body becomes a means for investigating displacement, social identity and manifestation through everyday performance. I can't wait to see people's reactions in Beirut.'

Interview: Florence Thireau

Until July 30. Free