Things Fall Apart All Over Again
View of Bunga’s site-specific. © Carlos Bunga.
Artists Space + info
In this exhibition, Bunga and artists Heather Rowe, and Michael Sailstorfer, employed strategies of construction, destruction, and transformation to explore the architectural structure of the house.
Using everyday materials, Bunga presented a site-specific installation, a house made out of cardboard, which he then collapsed and documented in pictures.
Curators Cecilia Alemani and Simone Subal wrote:
“Bunga spent several days building the cardboard structure. He then painted the outside walls white in order to link the house with the gallery space. However, he coated the interior with different colors, creating a more personal, intimate setting. Afterwards, in a performative gesture, he destroyed his makeshift building through strategic cuts inflicted to the walls’ foundation, and crushed the interior walls with the impact of his body. Upon the house’s collapse, Bunga removed the demolished wall panels. Only the bare shell of the house, the floor with traces of former interior walls and the previously hidden multi-colored cardboard panels attached to the gallery wall remained.
Bunga placed, next to the fallen form, a light box with a number of slides showing the complex process of the house’s construction and destruction. Although the act of construction is hidden from the viewer, the slides allow him or her to recreate the previous stages of the house. The slides give evidence and stress the importance of the different temporal phases.
Bunga is interested in the idea of the house as the archetypal symbol of protection and familiarity. According to the artist, the house belongs to our collective consciousness as the signifier of inhabitation. By building this structure, and then un-building it, Bunga underscores the fragility connected with these associations. It is crucial to take notice of the temporal dimension within his work. Bunga fast-forwards the process of decay in his construction, especially, when he juxtaposes the time it takes to build—up to several days—with the act of destruction, which lasts approximately one hour. By speeding up the life cycle of his house and by using perishable material such as cardboard, Bunga emphasizes the fragility and instability of his construction. Moreover, he deliberately pushes this cycle of construction and destruction by trashing his makeshift house by the end of the exhibition: nothing will last. The ephemeral nature of Bunga’s work is a metaphor for the impermanence of life.”
Curators: Cecilia Alemani and Simone Subal
2005. New York, United States.
