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SETTLERS HOUSE
materials high resolution photographs printed onto self-adhesive vinyl
and vinyl applied to an aluminum and plywood frame
dimensions 3.7 x 2 x 1.4 meters
12 x 6.5 x 4.6 feet
exhibition date October 7, 2008 - January 25, 2009
location Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht NL
A wooden house is one of the few surviving remnants of the ghost town of Hamilton, a frontier mining town near a strike of silver ore in Nevada, USA. Established in 1868 and abandoned in roughly 1887, over 20,000 people relocated to the area around Hamilton during its boomtown rush.
Time and weather have collapsed this former residence almost completely to its foundations. The roof is strikingly warped and all but one of the supporting walls has fallen. It is remarkable as one of only a few wooden structures still remaining - most were destroyed by fire, or deconstructed and moved as settlers abandoned their stake.
Settlers house is a large-scale, freestanding photographic sculpture that "reproduces" the collapsing structure. While the work is a study of a historical building, it is just as much a vehicle for reflection on events in the present.
The piece is made from materials common to contemporary advertising and construction practice. High-resolution photographs printed on vinyl are mounted to plywood, literally reconstructing the decaying architecture piece by piece. The photograph stands in as a ghost image of a ghost town.
With thanks to
Bonnefanten Museum
Jan van Eyck Academie
and the Center for Land Use Interpretation
Structural fabrication with Ron Bernstein, Coordinator Materials at the Jan van Eyck Academie
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images: 1
2 3 study
  
above images from left to right: view of the work from across the entrance staircase
of the Bonefanten Museum, side views from the top of the staircase
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