The ARM ART PROJECT
The ARM project (Asylum-Relocation-Migration) where I am interested in re-establishing something of a past in the form of a house. A home is destroyed by natural or manmade forces. They are lost in memory and often by vast distances as the people that lived there needed to find a new place to live. Wars cause the extreme destruction of peoples homes and lives. Around the planet the weather wreaks havoc through fires, floods, earthquakes, cyclones and droughts. Homes are demolished to build new developments or highways. Australia has strict migration laws and its view on asylum are exclusive.
My concept revolves around re-establishing small remnants from anywhere where a home/homes have been destroyed into symbolic new homes or cast concrete here in Bunbury. People from anywhere are invited to send any materials used in the structure or interiors of houses as large or small as they wish. Rubble, tiles, timber, upholstery/furnishings, roofing, plastics; anything that is affordable for sender to post. An accompanied story is encouraged. Contact me for any further information.
Building Happiness
This current body of work is an evolution from the local to the international and comes from research after I read Allain De Botton’s ‘The Architecture of Happiness’.
‘Taking architecture seriously requires that we open ourselves to the idea that we are affected by our surroundings’ Allain De Botton. Architecture has the power to evoke within us a full range of emotions, but we require happiness to thrive. So how do our buildings create happiness?
We look to our buildings to contain us like a psychological structure in which to hold a vision of ourselves. Architecture heavily influences who we can be and acts as a reminder of our full potential. Our buildings also reflect the conditions of their creation in political and economic contexts. Travelling to China was a way to discover how these conditions affected the people.
China’s history is illustrated in its buildings. Centuries of changing rule altered the styles of its buildings. Influences from Dynastic rulers, Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, Europe and Russia, and contemporary international design trends, all within varying periodic political controls, have created a contrasting built environment. At no time in its history has China seen so much alteration to its landscape through development than the past 30 years.
The work you see is the culmination of 12 months of planning, 30 days of exploring the Southern Yangtse Delta from Shanghai to Hangzhou and places in between including Jiāxīng and another 12 months of production.
