Katherine
Mitchell
DiRico

#HouseCalls(thesky)

My five-year-old son once asked me if the sky is made or grown. I suppose what he meant was: did we grow it from the ground, or manufacture it in a factory, as we had been discussing the difference between natural and artificial objects just the day before. But as usual, I stumbled through the answer. The ambiguity between natural and artificial conditions in our physical surroundings—be they virtual or in real life—is deep, wrapped up in invisible forces of epic proportions that extend like tendrils through deep time…and he was on to the next big question anyways, as I stood there wearing the weight of how to explain the sky.

I make things that fall apart, that get rearranged, that have been named non-compliant, ancient, synthetic, delicate, spiritual, ephemeral, on the verge of becoming, or collapsing. I use materials that don’t behave to make landscapes or still lives or entire miniature civilizations that change with the light, and that shudder with the flip of an air vent. They’re responsive. Considered. They adapt and respond to presence and evoke a response in return. Even when they are quiet, they are awakened by a mere shift in light—making them inherently reciprocal and intimate.

House Calls was born from a desire to connect directly with people in their homes and domestic spaces, to situate within their most intimate structures my primary artistic inquiries. Each House Call installation will be constructed in response to the host's unique space. At once harmonious and incongruent, the installation will impart an otherworldliness that calls into relief our domestic routines, offering a new lens through which to view and consider how and what we care for. By setting up this cycle of artistic interrogation, where the meaning of the object is informed by the presence of the inhabitant, and the experience of dwelling is informed by the object, House Calls gives meaning to that which is momentary in order to render it momentous.

Rules of Engagement: Host and Artist

1. The work is installed within one week, and is de-installed after 3 months.

2. Walls are protected with no holes larger than a pin, and paint is retained at initial quality.

3. Hosts domestic objects can be incorporated into the installation but that is not a necessity.

4. The work must be documented by the Host in photographic and video form, in at least 3 different ways (vantage points, lighting, etc.).

5. The work must be posted on IG by the host, tagging the artist, at least once during the 3 months.

6. A gesture of care in return must be given to the artist after the 3 months in the form of a letter via post, a piece of art or writing, a loaf of bread, a studio visit, childcare, or otherwise.