Housing Project

Opening Reception on Friday, December 5 at 8 pm

Access is pleased to present Housing Project, two architectural installation and photographic work by artist Kathy Tycholis. This exhibition explores ideas about division of space and property in how we designate or claim as "habitable" the streets, parks, and building of urban domains as "home". Kathy Tycholis juxtaposes strategies utilized by popular television programs selling hoe improvement and makeover in relation to the social and cultural urgency about the scarcity of low income housing and increasing homeless residents of the immediate streets neighboring Access in our community.

This exhibition is composed of two architectural structures:

In "Creating Spaces" the artist uses a $40.00 budget to revamp dumpster finds and thrift shop purchases to create a three dimensional model of a room, compete with bed furnishings, wall paper, and interesting reading materials for any home seeker. Although mimicking the minimal and modern interior spaces of television shows in its design contents, the structure will provide an unobstructed view of the outer shell and its unattached vulnerability to the audience. Placed in the neighborhood location within walking distance from Access, this structure will be photographed daily and the images will be installed in the Front Gallery as documentation of the exploration, usage, and possible destruction through audience participation.

In "The Speical," the artist spends a $100.00 budget to construct a larger than maquette size housing unit made of disposable materials, a replica of the ubiquitous and infamous Vancouver Specials. As with "Creating Spaces" the audience is invited to explore the exterior and interior of this "home space" erected within the rectangular space of the Main Gallery. Would this "home" survive outside the protection of the gallery walls? What would be its usage in an uncontrolled context of the streets within urban and natural elements? This installation questions the idea of architectural space as home in examining the roles of alternate spaces and structures misplaced in its presumed functionality.