mnemonic: 3706 W Dickens Ave

Latex records from a 126 year-old house (each cast from a 64” x 19” surface area), dust and minuscule vestiges from current and past inhabitants, rented scaffold, artificial wind.

This installation explores the idea of place making through the lens of the domestic space―the place where we each craft our narratives of home, where memories intertwine with aspirations, and where the contours of identity are continually reshaped. Through a methodical and repetitive process of casting, I have documented this aging house through latex casts of the scale of my body. The indexical records not only capture the forms and textures of its architectural surfaces, but also the dust and dirt slowly accumulated on them―minuscule vestiges that can serve as an archive of past histories and collective memories. As each of these latex skins are made and pulled from the surfaces that they were intimately touching in the house, one hundred twenty-plus years of history migrate from one surface to another, and these mirrored versions of the house’s body reveal the point of view from which these walls, floors and air vents encounter mine, and all others before me. As I index the house through these latex skins, I become aware of it as an observer through time, looking out at its inhabitants, one after the other.

Photos: Aimee Suá