Reece Terris: Ought Apartment

I recently just signed my life away by purchasing a piece of real estate. Although I have yet to move into the place, I am beginning to realise that this move will be accompanied by a large carbon footprint. It is an opportunity for me to discard all the old and barely working appliances and purchase new ones - from the refrigerator to the toaster! Now, of course, technology is such that new models are a lot of efficient, but what happens to the old appliances? How many people actually attempt to recycle them? This is the theme Reece Terris plans to explore in his new installation titled “Ought Apartment”.

Reece Terris is a Vancouver artist as well as a general contractor specialising in residential renovation. “Over the years I have been collecting items from the interior of homes that I have been contracted to renovate. I have saved… [anything that is] generally useful and in good condition, yet have been discarded for more up to date models… Frustrated with the environmental negligence and wastefulness involved in the never-ending home renovation process, the work I am proposing will recycle the collected items and transform their function from rejected remnants of dated décor into one inclusive work, housing iconic objects with a formal and aesthetic value of their own.” (Jennifer Kostuik Gallery)

“Ought Apartment is a six-storey installation that would rise up through the main atrium of the Vancouver Art Gallery and feature six full-scale apartments stacked one upon the other. Each apartment level would be fully furnished exclusively with original items from the 1950’s through to the present decade and include a kitchen, living room and bathroom. Each Floor would represent the look of one particular decade using materials from the time, thus becoming emblematic of that period’s interior design and domestic living. Beginning with the 1950’s at the ground floor level, the decades would climb chronologically with each tier of the installation.”

“The varied heights and widths of the installation in relation to the gallery levels would present visitors with many unusual sightlines and unorthodox viewing angles into each apartment compelling the viewer to reconsider their relationship with the consumption and construction of domestic space.”

Pictures are process drawings of the installation. Ought Apartment will be open to public beginning May 6th, 2009 through September 20th, 2009.