Building

Ceramic, textile, steel frame, sound installation
Length is variable from 150cm to 300cm x30x30 cm
2014

Group-exhibition at Concordia, Enschede


The work Building was part of my graduation at the AKI-Artez University of Arts, and the result of my research into ‘non-architecture’: houses created without any planning oversight by the government or architect, mainly constructed in slums of big cities around the world. The work is based on the most common small and square houses, a simple one room construction with 4 walls and a ceiling. They are piled up in a stack going to the ceiling, showing that there is no limit to the growing slums, but also referring to the more organized very big apartment buildings created in Western country’s by project developers and the government which are often the poor areas of cities in Western societies.

The stack of little houses are made of soft gray ceramic, differing slightly in color, with 4 having a layer of textile around them. Inside is a metal pole which is adaptable to different heights, to a maximum of 3 meters (on picture), and 4 speakers playing a soundscape of streets and nature sounds from all over the world. The houses are all different in angles and in how they fit around the pole, which creates a certain order to how they fit together. The pole is invisible, leaving the impression that they are only holding on to each other with a very fragile balance, giving the feeling that it could just tip over with one touch (in reality the installation is locked at the ceiling).

The textile is referring to the colorful clothing almost always hanging outside the homes, and in the worst slums where plastic or cloth is the only means of walls they sometimes have.

The soundscape inside the installation is made of street sounds of different places around the world; creating a lively environment of people talking, transport moving around, birds and rain etc. that gives you the feeling of actually being in these places.