Developments in Housing
Developments in Housing, series, 2006-ongoing,
All works Laura Wills and William Cheesman,
Wills and Cheesman's ongoing Developments in Housing series explore ideas of makeshift shelter, DIY survival and urban camping. The structures are large-scale ephemeral, and site specific installations that often involve audience participation. This surface creates a space to share and draw ideas. The works often include discarded objects and evidence reminiscent of people having stayed there such as blankets or camp fire. The installations draw together ideas and style from both artists, and require rigorously working together with their self-devised cardboard quilting construction technique. Both artists are interested in collaborating to develop models of social installation that offer an engagement of ecological themed issues through the interaction of their work.
Shelter #1, Developments in Housing, 2006
Bella Cosa Sculpture Park and Gallery, part of the 2006 Fleurieu biennial community programs section.
Cardboard, material, pastel, charcoal, cane, bricks
Situated amongst a pine forest the audience happens upon an empty structure nestled in between two trees. On a closer look it appears as if a group of people passed through the area, stopped for a few days, built a shelter and moved on. Left behind are the remains of a campfire and cave like drawings on the inside of the shelter. The drawings elude to ways one can live more harmoniously in the South Australian environment such as using solar energy, and possible local food sources like eating kangaroo, emu and goat.
Shelter #2, Parkside Nomadic Group, 2007
Project Space courtyard CACSA,
wax cardboard, textile, found materials
An urban shelter this was made from wax cardboard boxes proving to be very hardy and durable almost waterproof. Belongings were left behind such as clothes and blankets, and makeshift scratching tools invited viewers to add scratch drawings into the interior wax walls.
Shelter #3, Travelling Home, 2008
Rhymil Park, Commissioned for Fringe Family Weekend,
Cardboard, material, pencils, books, suitcases, cane
Travelling Home was commissioned for Fringe Family Weekend and included a secret suitcase trapdoor tunnel that visitors could open and travel through to come out around the back. Viewers were invited to participate by drawing onto the external surfaces and reading books inside.
Shelter #4, Rumah Kelapa/ The Coconut House, 2009
Cemeti Art House Yogyakarta,
Cardboard, bamboo, textile, bricks, pastel, plants, found materials
Created as part of an Asialink residency at Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta. The Coconut House, explores the artists interest in social exchange and creative home making with an adjacent shop/ annex workshop, cardboard garden, cardboard furniture and domestic elements from books and shoes to lap top computers and money.
Next door to Cemeti is a residential house with the front area operating as a shop. It was our local es buah (fruit smoothie) and savoury snack place. Our installation was based on this model. Home and business in one! Cheesman developed several new cardboard furniture designs, exploring with traditional weaving techniques the artists had learnt at a village on the outskirts of Yogya. Wills drew into the installation blurring the boundary between real and drawn objects.
