Artifact 15: House of U.C
Wooden Dollhouse plastered with response forms completed by the public to ‘Unnamed Creature Wants To Know’ coated with latex, beads and paper-clay ‘tumours’. 12.8 x 6.3 inches
I was inspired by the artists Pino Deodato for his terracota scultpures, and Jeanine Pennell for her paper mache and stoneware. Both artists created ‘scenes’ that were whole words, but at a small, holdable scale.
In particular, Jeanine Pennell’s ‘Waiting Room’, and Pino Deodato’s ‘Pensierini’:
These works inflenced my choice of materials; blending paper, different types of clay and contrasting surface finishes (i.e matte vs slick (latex) But especially in the decison of scale, showing me I could create the ‘place’ in which an entity lives, or perhaps multiple alters, within one metaphysical mind/house.
In terms of using the forms, I always knew that I wanted to repurpose them. People’s opinions/experiences/perspectives literally lining the walls. I view it as the many voices in the mind, intruding. Or maybe the fabric of the mind- as a background murmur. The mould flowers have invaded this space as well (you will keep seeing them in my work) They are everywhere, different sizes and colour variations- but so persistant. Everywhere you go in the ‘mind’ (place) there they are- the rejected gift that won’t leave you alone. The tumours growing in the ceiling and the beads coating walls and floors- they are out of place, or left over. This dollshouse they exist in being a mind stuck in childhood, with the trauma and the many voices and always, always, always... the flowers.
The document itself: I had recently read/researched ‘The Arcades Project’ By Walter Benjamin an unfinished ‘book’ (writing object) using montage techniques of quotes, observations, spiderwebs as a method of collage. In particular, I looked at Esther Leslie’s analysis
- and what really stood out to me aside from Benjamin’s multi-layered format was what Leslie explains as his dream interpretation ‘this city dreams itself into being’ as fragmented memory- it only makes sense once thought over, revised. Like Freud said: reccount and return is the way of ‘becoming oneself’ through the retelling. If I took other peoples’ thoughts/imaginings and displayed them as one mutant object would this be stealing? Do you have ownership of thoughts if those are regurgated undertsandings from others around you? How long do you ‘own’ them for? Were they were never really yours to begin with? Do these little fragments of others create connections that I couldn’t make on my own?