MILDEART

LOOKING FOR A HOME

March 15 – June 30, 2011

Kristyna and Marek Milde

Work in progress installation created from furniture

found on the streets of New York in a period of one month

as part of the

Express + Local project at the Queens College Art Center

curated by Tara Mathison

Looking for a Home is a work -in- progress installation which concerns the themes of consumerism and the culture of disposal, recalling environmental awareness in the realm of domesticity. For one month this installation will monitor and examine the rejection of household objects, which are often thrown away while still in usable condition.

This space is being populated with found furniture and domestic objects dumped on the streets of the New York metropolitan area. It will grow out of sidewalk finds that the artists make during their residency. The objects are cleaned, repaired and categorized; the progress is monitored and then documented. The resulting piece will be a fully or partially equipped living environment, depending on the luck of the findings.

The objects, which assumingly have been replaced by new commodities are, in Looking for a Home, kept relevant by the artists’ discovery. This site-specific environment reflects the state of abundance and rejection in the item‘s found location. While the sale of anonymously mass-produced household objects is encouraged by the supportive framework of fictional stories around the objects and designers, Looking for a Home focuses on the stories of the objects’ lives and their use, adding an enriching personal layer of a real story connected to specific people and their environment.

The public is encouraged to use this space as a working area, and to share thoughts/comments on the items.

You could follow its development here.

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The Rules of Creating “Looking for a Home”

1. To create a lounge environment for the Queens College Art Center, which represents an island of private sphere within the public institutional space.

2. All objects are found on the streets of New York by the artists during the period of one month.

3. The pieces are selected with the criteria, that the artist would like to have them at home.

4. The objects are repaired and cleaned and gradually added to the installation.

5. Each object is documented and categorized in the Records of the Finds and the location of its find is traced on a map.

6. If during the search period a better piece is found, than the one already included in the installation, it will replace and upgrade the previous one.

7. Finally a catalogue of the installation is produced.