White Columns Online #24:
Dwelling 
curated by Mihaela Chiriac

April 13–May 27, 2023 Online
A semicircle-shaped tile sculpture with red and yellow cloth.

Amanda C. Mathis
Liminal, 2021
Linoleum flooring, upholstery, pillow case
44 1/2 × 50 × 1 1/2 inches
Courtesy of the artist

A framed photograph of a person lying on an ornate rug, eyes met to the camera.

Jorian Charlton
Yemisi, 2021
Baryta Fine Art Print mounted to Dibond
25 × 21 × 1.5 inches (63.5 × 53.3 × 3.8 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Cooper Cole, Toronto

A painting of a green and beige wall with patches of sunlight on it.

Fabio de Faria
Sunlight on Door Frame and Wall, 2018
Oil on canvas
32 × 46 inches
Courtesy of the artist

A worn-looking, rectangular-shaped sewn cloth sculpture with spoons inside hung up on a wall.

Kathleen Granados
Premonition, 2020
Family dishtowel, cotton fabric, found eating spoons, thread, modeling paste
13.5 × 10.25 × 0.75 in.
Courtesy of the artist. Photography by Alexander Perrelli.

A photographic collage of rugs and door frames in various angles and sizes.

Kathleen Granados
Trap Doors, 2021
Digital collage of family photographs
3 × 3.5 in.
Courtesy of the artist.

A rectangular white sculpture hung on the wall, with various shapes protruding from it, and a figure to the right.
Jonathan Ehrenberg
Interior, 2022
Clay and mixed media on panel
24 × 18 × 8 inches
Courtesy of the artist
A square painting of a black and white staircase framed in a gray brick wall.

Tania Alvarez
If You Return, 2022
Acrylic and oil on panel
12 × 12 × 1.75 in
Courtesy of the artist

A screenshot of red fabric floating against a clear blue sky, with the edge of a tree in the bottom right hand-corner.
Allen Golder Mullin Carpenter
Kites, 2021
Video
4:56 min
Courtesy of the artist
A photograph of a room with green colored doors, a patterned rug, and a red plastic chair on the left.

Steve Oliver
Hand Water Handle, 2020
Lambda print on clear acrylic
343 × 354mm
Courtesy of the artist

A blue toned painting of a nude woman with warped, elongated hands and feet standing in a room looking at an image on the wall. A cat stretches on the bottom right and another figure creeps behind her in the shadows.

Josh J Feigin
Untitled, 2023
Oil on canvas
20 × 16 in.
Courtesy of the artist

A mixed media painting with the view of legs in a bathtub and swirls where the hot/cold water taps would be.

Pol Morton
Hot/Cold, 2021
Oil paint, human hair, macramé cord, paper, and graphite
6’ × 5’
Courtesy of the artist

A screenshot of a dark room with a shining bright doorway in the middle, with a hazy textured overlay.

Jonathan Ehrenberg
Bad Tools,  2016
Video
2:37 min
Courtesy of the artist

A screenshot of various car wrecks in front of a barren landscape.

Madeline Djerejian
decima campesina (excerpt), 2015
Video
2:35 min
Courtesy of the artist

An image of two metallic threads of the same shape in the middle of a creased brown background.

Ana De La Cueva
double trouble, 2019
Gold and silver thread embroidery on military canvas
53 × 47 in (120 × 135 cm)
Courtesy of the artist

Participating Artists

Tania Alvarez
Allen Golder Mullin Carpenter
Jorian Charlton
Fabio de Faria
Ana De La Cueva
Madeline Djerejian
Jonathan Ehrenberg
Josh J Feigin
Kathleen Granados
Amanda C. Mathis
Pol Morton
Steve Oliver

Exhibition Description

Browsing through the images from the Artist Registry, I came across a multitude of representations and takes on the mundane. It was not only thoughts around domesticity and interiority that these works evoked, topics that we’ve all been confronted with intensely over the past two or three pandemic years. While looking, something more fundamental revealed itself in this simple, banal reminder: regardless of technological development, of the speed that determines our lives, of geographical, cultural and other differences, the need for shelter and dwelling remains inseparable from human existence. It is one of the defining features of the human condition. One’s shell, the body one inhabits, is soft and vulnerable and in perpetual need of protection.

My search increasingly focused on representations that map the semantic field of the words “dwelling” and “home.“ This reminded me of my first encounter with Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophical thought. I came across it some time ago, while researching Chantal Akerman’s films. Akerman’s entire cinematic oeuvre, as well as her writing, deals with notions of belonging and homelessness. The Belgian filmmaker was particularly interested in Levinas’s assertion that the human face as an expression of the Other ordains one’s own humanity. This idea became crucial to Akerman’s conception of cinema, which oscillated between documentary and fiction, and specifically to the manner in which she framed her shots. In his writings, Levinas aims at an empathetic and ethical understanding of the world and the Other. He establishes an inseparable link between the meanings of “dwelling” and the realization of our humanity. Levinas refers both to dwelling as the space that provides shelter and to the act of dwelling in one’s own body, in a home and in the world. In Levinas’s view, the body has a paradoxical character. Its neediness makes it experience discomforts, but it also has the resources to overcome these hardships through appropriate actions. Similarly, the term “home” holds a double implication: while it offers protection, it also hints at the vulnerability and fragility of human beings.

Following these lines of thought, the works I have selected for this online presentation explore positive and negative spaces that might be called or derived from “home” and “dwelling,” be they domestic interiors, imaginary architectures, borders between countries, territories deprived of shelter, mental spaces, retreats for rituals of self-care, places for daydreams and obsessions. As Gaston Bachelard put it so beautifully in his book The Poetics of Space,“all really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home. […] imagination functions in this direction whenever the human being has found the slightest shelter: we shall see the imagination build ‘walls’ of impalpable shadows, comfort itself with the illusion of protection or, just the contrary, tremble behind thick walls, mistrust the staunchest ramparts. In short, in the most interminable of dialectics, the sheltered being gives perceptible limits to [their] shelter. [They experience] the house in its reality and in its virtuality, by means of thought and dreams. […] Through dreams, the various dwelling-places in our lives co-penetrate and retain the treasures of former days” (Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, Beacon Press, 1994, p.5.)

Mihaela Chiriac is a curator living and working in Berlin, Germany. She is co-founder of STATIONS, a space for contemporary art, debates and collaborations (www.stations.zone).

This exhibition is the twenty-forth in a series of online exhibitions curated exclusively from White Columns’ Curated Artist Registry.

Video Works

Allen Golder Mullin Carpenter
Kites, 2021
Video
4:56 min
Courtesy of the artist

Jonathan Ehrenberg
Bad Tools
,  2016
Video
2:37 min
Courtesy of the artist

Madeline Djerejian
decima campesina (excerpt)
Video
2:35 min
Courtesy of the artist

A semicircle-shaped tile sculpture with red and yellow cloth.
A framed photograph of a person lying on an ornate rug, eyes met to the camera.
A painting of a green and beige wall with patches of sunlight on it.
A worn-looking, rectangular-shaped sewn cloth sculpture with spoons inside hung up on a wall.
A photographic collage of rugs and door frames in various angles and sizes.
A rectangular white sculpture hung on the wall, with various shapes protruding from it, and a figure to the right.
A square painting of a black and white staircase framed in a gray brick wall.
A screenshot of red fabric floating against a clear blue sky, with the edge of a tree in the bottom right hand-corner.
A photograph of a room with green colored doors, a patterned rug, and a red plastic chair on the left.
A blue toned painting of a nude woman with warped, elongated hands and feet standing in a room looking at an image on the wall. A cat stretches on the bottom right and another figure creeps behind her in the shadows.
A mixed media painting with the view of legs in a bathtub and swirls where the hot/cold water taps would be.
A screenshot of a dark room with a shining bright doorway in the middle, with a hazy textured overlay.
A screenshot of various car wrecks in front of a barren landscape.
An image of two metallic threads of the same shape in the middle of a creased brown background.

Amanda C. Mathis, Liminal, 2021, linoleum flooring, upholstery, pillow case, 44 1/2 × 50 × 1 1/2 inches. (A semicircle-shaped tile sculpture with red and yellow cloth.)

Jorian Charlton, Yemisi, 2021, Baryta Fine Art Print mounted to Dibond, 25 × 21 × 1.5 inches (63.5 × 53.3 × 3.8 cm) (A framed photograph of a person lying on an ornate rug, eyes met to the camera.)

Fabio de Faria, Sunlight on Door Frame and Wall, 2018, oil on canvas, 32 × 46 inches. (A painting of a green and beige wall with patches of sunlight on it.)

Kathleen Granados, Premonition, 2020, family dishtowel, cotton fabric, found eating spoons, thread, modeling paste, 13.5 × 10.25 × 0.75 in. (A worn-looking, rectangular-shaped sewn cloth sculpture with spoons inside hung up on a wall.)

Kathleen Granados, Trap Doors, 2021, digital collage of family photographs, 3 × 3.5 in. (A photographic collage of rugs and door frames in various angles and sizes)

Jonathan Ehrenberg, Interior, 2022, clay and mixed media on panel, 24 × 18 × 8 inches. (A rectangular white sculpture hung on the wall, with various shapes protruding from it, and a figure to the right.)

Tania Alvarez, If You Return, 2022, acrylic and oil on panel, 12 × 12 × 1.75 in. (A square painting of a black and white staircase framed in a gray brick wall.)

Allen Golder Mullin Carpenter, Kites, 2021, video, 4:56 min. (A screenshot of red fabric floating against a clear blue sky, with the edge of a tree in the bottom right hand-corner.)

Steve Oliver, Hand Water Handle, 2020, Lambda print on clear acrylic, 343 × 354mm. (A photograph of a room with green colored doors, a patterned rug, and a red plastic chair on the left.)

Josh J Feigin, Untitled, 2023, oil on canvas, 20 × 16 in. (A blue toned painting of a nude woman with warped, elongated hands and feet standing in a room looking at an image on the wall. A cat stretches on the bottom right and another figure creeps behind her in the shadows.)

Pol Morton, Hot/Cold, 2021, oil paint, human hair, macramé cord, paper, and graphite, 6’ × 5’. (A mixed media painting with the view of legs in a bathtub and swirls where the hot/cold water taps would be.)

Jonathan Ehrenberg, Bad Tools,  2016, video, 2:37 min. (A screenshot of a dark room with a shining bright doorway in the middle, with a hazy textured overlay.)

Madeline Djerejian, decima campesina (excerpt), 2015, video, 2:35 min. (A screenshot of various car wrecks in front of a barren landscape.)

Ana De La Cueva, double trouble, 2019, gold and silver thread embroidery on military canvas, 53 × 47 in (120 × 135 cm). (An image of two metallic threads of the same shape in the middle of a creased brown background)