Housetent

Title: Housetent
Place/Time: The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the central Oregon coast during the spring of 2014

Size: 7’6″ tall x 4′ wide x 3′ 10″ deep
Materials:
carved cedar frame and peg connectors, artist-made oilcloth, woodglue, housepaint, rope

(It is important to the concept within Housetent that all of the materials I chose to make this piece be connected to the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, which dually functions as my workplace and my homeplace.) The wood in Housetent is remnant 1972 cedar from the building in which I live within and work within. It is wood from the first building constructed at The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. The canvas in Housetent is oilcloth that I created using semi-traditional methods and a stack of fabric and mish-mash of chemicals left behind by students and instructors at the Sitka Center. Every scrap of this fabric and every bit of oilcloth-like liquid was consumed and assembled to create the canvas walls and roof of Housetent. By choosing to use only this unwanted stash of material I had to piece and patch and mix and combine in order to make this amount of material work, with not a scrap in excess. In addition, my low-tech, low-resource use of materials dictated that I make my own grommets and carve all the wooden pegs used as connectors instead of buying hardware. I chose this process in order to utilize and challenge my resourcefulness.

Details (condensed):
Housetent is a small house-shaped tent with backpack straps that is light enough, just barely, for me to carry to select locations. As an object Housetent speaks to my question of “Where do I live while I am searching for a place to live?” This then points metaphorically to “How do I live while I am searching for how to live?”

Details (expanded):
Housetent is a house-shaped tent with backpack straps and light enough for travel. Within this work are my thoughts about attraction to place and sense of home. “Where do I live while I am searching for a place to live?” and “How do I live while I am searching for how to live?” are concepts within this piece. Often times I see a spot and think, “I could live there”, and then see another spot and think, “I could live there”. Housetent allows me to physically explore these places while conceptually struggling with thoughts about the security and insecurity of lifestyle choices. With Housetent I visit these places in a way that is much like camping, trying these places on like clothing to see how they fit, connecting to place yet honoring its impermanence and tenuousness.

I made Housetent just big enough for me to stand up and sit down in, any bigger and I would not be able to carry it on my back. The size, weight, complication of assemblage and disassembly teeters on the line of being just barely small enough and just barely light enough for me to carry around myself. Within these choices is my physical struggle and thoughts about independence in providing myself with what I need to survive in a way that fits who I am. Houstent allows me to explore in a tangible way, the tenuousness that can come from selecting non-traditional ways of meeting needs for shelter and a sense of community.