Home Show: Revisited

Private residence
Curated by Miki Garcia and Michele O’Marah
Presented by the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum
May 21–July 17, 2011
Santa Barbara

From The Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum announcement:

The public exhibition focuses on the societal and cultural interpretations of “home” in sites from Goleta to Carpinteria and corresponds to CAF’s vision as being not simply an institution for passive viewing of artwork, but an active art space engendering a greater understanding of contemporary art and the creative process.

Participating artists: Piero Golia, Evan Holloway, Bettina Hubby, Florian Morlat, Kori Newkirk, Jennifer Rochlin, Ry Rochlen, Kirsten Stoltmann, Stephanie Taylor, Jennifer West. Co-curated by Miki Garcia, Director of CAF, and Michele O'Marah, artist. Home Show: Revisited comprised ten Los Angeles-based artists creating new, site-specific works in 9 private residences.

Hubby on her installation:

I was paired with one of the local homeowners, Doug and Marian McKenzie, and installed a piece at their home, which was open to public view on weekends throughout the run of the eight-week exhibition. Visitors to CAF were given a map and instructions for the tour. Each artist worked with master printmaker Elaine Levasseur to produce a limited edition print, forming a portfolio (edition of 45). This portfolio was sold concurrently with the exhibition.

​Full-sized photographs of myself were printed on silk and hung outside of the frontmost windows of the McKenzie home. Images depicted scenes of what I would be doing throughout a normal day at my own home, but in this case shot within their home, and integrating my things with theirs. I approached this project in the spirit of investigating the idea of home, privacy, personal choices, what we surround ourselves with, and who we allow in to see those things and choices. These images on curtains shielded the interior of the McKenzie home during the hours of the exhibition with my personality and my own interior life. Images included: myself and my dog Bellmer sleeping on their guest bed, getting ready for the day in their bathroom, working on my collages on their dining table, writing letters on their coffee table, dressed up to go out at night, and doing yoga in their garage.

​The first part of the installation you would have seen as a visitor consisted of an empty portable storage unit parked in their guest parking space diagonally facing the street. At the open doorway of the unit hung a two-panel silk curtain depicting the interior of my Los Angeles storage unit. This storage unit served to introduce myself to the neighborhood via an image of my own belongings. That this storage unit is what a visitor saw first, and that it is an image of only my things, is important, since it plays with the idea that I had indeed, moved in; the viewers learned in a full bombastic reveal to what degree that was, when they entered the private yard and were struck by many images of myself.

​The following song made me think about how ingesting or experiencing other people's spaces/choices/objects would affect a visitor. When entering someone's home, we leave changed, and also leave the inhabitants changed. There is some residue that our interaction leaves: when we invite someone else in, we affect others with what is in our home and how we live in it.

Social Studies, written by David Byrne​

I thought that if I ate the food of the area I was visiting.
That I might assimilate the point of view of the people there.
As if the point of view was somehow in the food.
So I would make no choices myself regarding what food I ate.

I would simply follow the examples of those around me.

I would study menus very carefully,
Making note of important differences and similarities.
When shopping at the supermarket

I felt a great desire to walk off with someone else's groceries
So that I could study them at length
And study their effects on me.
As though if I ate their groceries I would become that person; until I finished their groceries.

And we might find ourselves going to the same places.
Running into one another at the movies
Or in a shopping mall.
Reading the same books.

Watching the same TV programmes.
Wearing the same clothes.
Travelling to the same places.
And taking the same pictures.

Getting sick at the same time.
And getting well again simultaneously.
Finding ourselves attracted to the same people.
Working at the same job.

And making the same amount of money.
Living identical lives - as long as the groceries lasted.

(Social Studies lyrics Copyright Warner Chappell Music, Inc.)​

The artists in the two previous Home Shows transformed the homes while showing respect for the hosts by not disrupting the day-to-day functioning. I wanted to respect the McKenzie's daily life while influencing them in some way. This could be termed, "friendly confrontation," where humor and content collide to positive effect, hopefully.  

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