Houses (part I)

Papier mache houses I and II
Boxes, cardboard pulp, flour paste
December 2023

The Houses project is preparation and experimentation for a project I hope to execute toward the end of 2024. Its realm is environmental and garden art, with a background in the idea of the lost paradise of the Garden of Eden. Ponderings on the state of the climate, the Damocles' sword of the Anthropocene, and the fragility of our civilisation all feed into my thoughts on the project.

I want to make miniature, house-like objects that sit in the environment and are gradually absorbed by it as they disintegrate, are overcome by the plant world and eventually disappear.

My first thought was to make miniature houses of papier mache, a material that is pleasing in many ways, from its simplicity and inherent reusing of paper to its impermanence and visual qualities. Early experiments were visually pleasing. 

Houses I and II at a site in the garden
December 2023

The plant part of the project was more challenging. After unsuccessfully attempting to make the houses themselves act as planters, I tried egg cartons with varying success.

House III at March 2024. It has subsided satisfactorily, but 
lacks much in the way of pleasing visual qualities.

In the end I just placed the houses in different parts of my garden and left them there to see what would happen. Earlier versions have varying amounts of papier mache; later ones are simply boxes with windows and doors cut into them. Although some of the houses subsided quite gracefully, and some of the garden locations provided pleasing vegetation, the results are not particularly visually pleasing. The papier mache, made from pulped grocery boxes, and the box houses both plain and with papier mache, were attractive to start with, but didn't take the idea where I want it to go. However a very worthwhile experimental phase for what I hope to become an interesting installation project.