Curated by Asuf Ishaq

A House Without Walls by Asuf Ishaq

I draw from my ideas about the body, architecture and the geographical location of my family house in Pakistan. Making sense of belonging, home and resurrection of lost time, and the experience of bodily awareness of home space, the house we live in. House is a container of memories and experiences, embodied within the building, the walls, doors, windows and roof. It is a personal and familial live archive, a portal to the past. Resonance of memory of space, the hallway, rooms, corners, staircase, attic and cellar. Spaces which capture history, relationships, rituals, identity, imagination and dreams. Gaston Bachelard in the Poetics of Space describes it in a philosophical way. 

“This house, as I see it, is a sort of airy structure that moves about on the breath of time. It really is open to the wind of another time. It seems as though it could greet us every day of our lives in order to give us confidence in life” 

As artist Do Hu Suh describes clothing as protection for our bodies and a house is an extension of clothing, embodiment of clothing, and a house becomes part of our body. Georges Perec in Species of Spaces and Other Pieces describes his perceptions of space,

“I put a picture on a wall. Then I forget there is a wall, I no longer know there is a wall, I no longer know this is a wall, I no longer know what a wall is. I no longer know that in my apartment there are walls” 

Artists’ works such as Donald Rodney’s small maquettes of his house made from his own skin and pins, while suffering from sickle cell disease, he is thinking of home as he spends much of his life in and out of hospital. Oliver Beer displays his grandmother’s 40-year-old kitchen lino, displaying the wear and tear by the movement of his grandmother’s body. And Rachel Whiteread, capturing the space within a house with cement, the negative space solidifying and becoming visible. Do Hu Suh traces his childhood home in actual scale with all the details, the work becomes large, suspended sculptures.

This selection of artworks explores living environment, re-thinking and recalling memorable spaces, time spent, relationships and experiences. Where in a house past and present time merge, recalling memories of important people, events and moments. This is a rich and fascinating selection of sculpture, installation, sound, film and photography.
 

References: 

Perec, Georges. (1974). Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. Penguin 

Bachelard, Gaston. (1958). The Poetics of Space. Presses Universitaires de France