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The two projects below are recently striking a chord over the intertubes though both are a little bit old. Maybe because of the foreclosures that are running rampant, or because of places like Detroit, where whole city blocks are abandoned, these house interventions seem to me especially apt.

Artist: Heather Benning (no website found), Dollhouse, 2007

Oliver and I have been spending some of our time looking to buy a house, some of which are foreclosures, short sales, or even multi-units. Yesterday we looked at a triplex where two of the apartments had residents, two older gentlemen, who had obviously lived there forever. We walked through their apartments, getting a little glimpse into their lives. Other houses, though vacant, clearly show remnants of the past residents: a door covered in a child’s favorite stickers, outlines on the walls of every picture in the house. Saskatchewan artist Heather Benning’s “Dollhouse”, though re-created, gives us this same sense of loss and mystery that remains when you see the objects of human history.

This transformation of two vacant houses about to be demolished by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck, Inversion (called Tunnel House by many people,) subverts the structure of a house. It was commissioned by Art League Houston back in 2005.  Besides looking really good, the art/house served as a passageway through which one can literally travel, the lives of the people who lived there and their history re-formed.

most Inversion photos by Brother O’Mara

A really great collection of articles and resources is coming to a close after 2 months of input from various writers, artists, and contributors. Hrag Vartanian wraps up the discussion by pointing to the main topics of discussion and notes other things that have been talked about all around the intertubes.  The next topic for discussion is, “Art and Economics”

Everything old is new again, (left) a Soviet-era poster by Alexander Rodchenko, and (right) a contemporary poster by Shepard Fairey

FLASH POINTS is a regular conversational series (on the ART:21 blog)that focuses on issues relevant to the state of the art world at large, contemporary art education, and issues artists face today. You can participate by contributing feedback, posing a follow-up question, sharing anecdotes, or suggesting new topics in the comments area below.

via theselby.com

It’s always fun to check out the homes of creative people. Here’s a mother lode from all over the world.

Posted via web from thepresentgroup’s posterous

Posted via web from thepresentgroup’s posterous

Another example of someone believing in creating change in small doses- Ramit Sethi isn’t waiting around to see the change he wants in the world.  He’s contributing to it.

Check out the grant/advice he is offering. It’s due this Thursday!!

From the people of We Can’t Paint:  Wassenaar

photo: Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann

From the Editor’s Letter about Wassenaar:

“Wassenaar is an Internet specific publication that focuses its curatorial eye on emerging photographers, photography books from established, independent, and self-publishers, as well as interviews conducted by bloggers. This simple formula, while structured much like a magazine, takes the ethos and subjective freedom of blogging by existing as both absent of commercial interests and free from a specific template. The ability to take risks in an online space means that the following issues of Wassenaar may only focus on a specific artist, type of photography, a single book, or even simply feature a collection of artist portfolios. In short, Wassenaar aims to be an online magazine that reflects its place within the web as an entity that continually evolves, never forgetting that this form publishing is indefinable.”