t a h i r a m a n d a r i n o
artist - curator
This piece emerged from deep in the archives held at Orleans House Gallery.
I searched for inspiration, what I found were some old photographs of an abandoned house.
I am intrigued by the mystery photographer who needed to capture the interior of 75 Castelnau. I wanted to recreate these interiors within a dolls house setting.Carefully studying the photographs, I captured the details and character of the time preserving the essence of the old within the new house. This house is called La Nouvelle Maison.
The photos were intriguing, taken as the house was at its end. Empty rooms and corridors. No furniture, the photos were a documentation of what was and the house was soon after demolished .
I wanted to recreate the interior and give them a narrative.
Our curiosity wanders around theses small rooms and conjures up our own pictures of forgotten spaces, buildings we have lived in and childhood memories of playing with dolls houses, our first steps in recreating narratives within houses.
My dolls house is different as it has no furniture apart from a single cloth covered chair by the fireplace , empty rooms left with scattered photos dusty floors and an attic with rubble, an empty house mourning its lost inhabitants and perhaps waiting for new ones.
La Maison Nouveau
I began as I always begin.
Experimenting.
I had an idea about some hooks.
I decided to make a new housing for these lovely rounded shaker-esque hooks.
I placed the hooks at my height level and then I stacked a broken down drawer that I had found neatly against the wall. Out into the space I placed a folded canvas with drawn lines.
This trio of objects all quietly doing their own thing, the eye oscillating between, the hooks keeping it all steady.
This 'Three piece Suite uncovers details that the viewer might be thinking about. The notion of wanting to use the hooks to hang a coat, are you allowed to do this ? The wanting to unfold the canvas , how the stacked drawer is reminiscent of what you might see in your own home, ordered disorder. The uninvited participation that leaves you wanting to uncover or disrupt the neat order.
.
This piece led me to start working on altering a 'Teachers Chair'. I wanted to see if I could make it slightly smaller.
I had bought a set of these chairs from ebay very cheaply, they are made of beech so are quite solid circa 1960's.
I spent a long time getting to know these chairs and unravelling the making.
Many people stopped to talk to me as I worked on one of the chairs as it reminded them of different things.
A book by Iain Banks.
The chair that features in the Twits by Roald Dhal.
Chairs in the Freeze Show 2012.
Finally I succeeded in altering the chair to make it slightly smaller. When placed next to an original version, a new relationship developed.
This continues in the forms of:
A companion, a couple. A dichotomy.
Documentation follows and the Chairs begin to animate themselves and create narratives.
A time-lapse evolved. The chairs are still. The scene staged and what moves around them is time. The documenting of day into night and back into day.
Underpinning these works have been my investigations with different media. Darkroom photography, screen printing, painting and fabric printing.