What gives a space meaning? And what takes it away? This is an interesting train of thought, and one I find myself on often. Is a space ever a blank canvas? Do you ever truly create your own space? The class discussion today centered around our spaces, the ones we’d be focussing on in our first project brief. I’ll be trying to portray the place I live now, and although it is the place I’ve lived in for the least amount of time in my life, it is the only home I have at the moment~ and it is the one I plan on staying for a while. It’s interesting how what was an empty, freshly painted white house, with polished floorboards and high ceilings can be filled by 5 young adults; our personalities and the few possessions we’ve ‘borrowed’ from our parents homes or finally bought for ourselves can make a place feel full.
Over the holidays I travelled around Japan for 17 days, travel, another weird concept. Leaving our spaces, and compressing our lives into a backpack for however long and making temporary homes along the way. During class today my mind wandered to some of the places and spaces I visited while in Japan, one being the Benesse House Art Site on the small island of Naoshima, off the coast somewhere between Osaka and Hiroshima. During this art project, various abandoned residential spaces, some houses over 200 years old, have been given a new purpose beyond decay. Artists and architects have been brought to the island to install art into these houses, and bring life and meaning back to them. The whole project is scattered throughout the residential district of Honmura on the island, so as tourists and visitors traverse the sites they are also walking among the day to day lives of the island locals.
It isn’t only through traditional art or installation that these places are given life, it’s also in the way nature, light, wind and sound are woven together with the man made aspects of the area to create a truly beautiful and surreal experience. For me, nature, art and architecture were married together perfectly at the Tadao Ando designed Chichu Art Museum, home to only three artists works; James Turrell, Claude Monet and Walter De Maria, and situated on the dream-like, picturesque postcard quality island of Naoshima. The way concrete, wood and light – seemingly simple objects, could be used alongside art to create a perfect space, perfect for so many people, was truly beautiful. But again, I wonder, if the space was created just to portray those three artists work, what happens when the art moves or changes? Will it ever? Will the space change to accommodate new art?
Back to Project Brief One, I’m really looking forward to trying to portray the different aspects of my space, and what makes it that. I want to ‘peel away’ some of the layers, because although it was a ‘blank canvas’ when we moved in a few months ago, there are still the ghosts of the past lurking in corners and etched into the flood boards that remain unpolished under the stairs.
