Ceci n’est pas une home

17 Sep Ceci n’est pas une home

Last Saturday I went to a friend’s house… I mean art installation.  I was at an art installation and I had to keep reminding myself I was at an art installation.  There was food in the fridge, slippers by the EZ chair, and a bug zapper on the back porch, but this was not a house.  This was the Great Divide inside the SCA gallery in Pomona.  The Great Divide, organized by Orange County artists Daniel Zarcharczuk, Corey Granados, Ricky Yarnall, Nicole Sloan, Kelly Rice, and Phuc Le is a commentary on the contemporary family unit presented as domestic space. 

Having less than two weeks to fabricate this space makes the accomplishments of these artists even more incredible.  The heels by the door, slippers by the chair, empty birdcage, and library book on the coffee table suggest the tired existence of a busy family, who want nothing more than to come home, retreat, and forget the day.  The kitchen, despite the adorable curtains, novelty coffee mug and nautical artifacts is more of a relic from a more attentive existence.  And the dining room, the savior of any twentieth century family, where gathering together for a home-cooked meal mended feelings of animosity is in complete disarray.

Even though the dining room is the spectacle of the installation it is the details that strengthen this work.  The carpet, wood flooring, and back door constantly placed me in a strangers home, where I wiped my feet, felt bad for looking in the medicine cabinet, and hesitated to grab a drink from the fridge without an invitation from my host.  What these artists achieved physically and psychologically surpasses any description I can give the Great Divide. 

These pictures do not do the art justice.-Krystal