Civic Fuel
1997
Space 4m x 3 m
Level 1 - Furniture For the Living
Level 2 - The Dust Room

“The exposition titled ‘Civic Fuel’ took part with two other artists, Albert Kliest and Marry Overtoom. As the gallery itself was previously a residence, the works created for the exposition were created in the context as to deal with the space as a living environment with locations on two levels, one above the other. For my part I chose to create a living room setting in one room and in the other a dust room.

Level 1
The living room setting was on the first floor and comprised of a three piece furniture set with accompanying coffee table. The furniture chairs were made out of a pot grond composite. The accompanying coffee table was cast out of concrete with a flame burning in the center. A large topographical portrait of the inside of a road pothole accompanied the setting. The work titled 'Furniture for the Living'  was dedicated to my father 1923 - 1996.

The intention of this installation is to probe into notions of home comfort within and outside the world at large... an attempt to bridge the outside world into an interior setting. As we remain occupants of time, life is temporal and constantly moving through us. This work functions as a reverse tomb, here we are able to sit down and contemplate the earth we will eventually go into. The coffee table has been designed as a hearth of sorts to function as a metaphorical fireplace of sorts. The table will remain, while the characters around it continue to change.

Level 2
In the second floor space directly above the furniture setting is the other work executed ‘The Dust Room”. Here you will find a large electron microscopic portrait of the inside of a dust particle magnified twenty million times. This large topographical portrait is intended to operate as a reference point of sorts. Accompanying this photo is a scale model of a room at 1:12 scale with walls constructed of images of the inside of a dust particle magnified one million times. The form is lit from within creating an illuminated glass house, which through the isolation of the form becomes a small building within the space itself and is in turn able to play off of the prevailing architecture which can be seen directly through the window directly in front of the object.   

This installation dealt with issues of altered scale and material reversal... and practically deals with the issue of occupancy on several levels. The work juxtaposes its surroundings and leaves the viewer with the unusual perspective of, rather than looking from the inside world outside - the outside world inside. This work is intended to probe into the prevailing material surface which constantly surrounds us."  RH