MAKING, INSTALLING

"HOUSE", RACHEL WHITEREAD

"House" was a temporary public sculpture created by British artist Rachel Whiteread in 1993.  What you're looking at is a concrete cast of the inside of a three story house.  Internal forms such as sinks and cupboards were removed, holes in the walls filled and the windows covered, to make for a completely solid internal surface.  The builders left through a hole in the roof which was then sealed, and the external brick-built structure was removed.  

REINTERPRETING

"House" is such a massive piece, yet pretty minimal.  We wanted to find a new way to showcase inverse space that usually goes unnoticed.  We only had a week, though, so we racked our brains trying to think of something impactful that wouldn't take long to make.  I finally came up with this outlet idea when we wandered into an empty room in the basement of Brook's Hall, our main building for design classes.  It used to be a photo lab, hence all the outlets.  It's been cleared out in order to repurpose the space.  I liked the idea of conducting an experiment while a space is still vacant, and hasn't been given new meaning yet.

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I purchased a couple electrical outlets, and we took modeling clay, pushed it into the crevices, and then quickly pulled it out.  I think we ended up using olive oil as a lubricant so the clay wouldn't stick inside! #whateverworks

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Then we bought a bunch of those plastic plugs that keep kids from playing with outlets.

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Once the outlet casts had dried, we superglued them to the plugs.  And voila!  Piece reinterpreted and out.