The Collector's House Sculptural Installation, 2016. 1250 × 2000 × 400 cm. Mixed media
Two hundred and fifty square metres in size, ‘The Collector’s House’ is a monumental, immersive space which can be freely entered and experienced. It’s created entirely in black, white and grey, making the viewer the only coloured element in the whole installation.
The work is a fictive, anachronistic interior, a large museum-like space, a Wunderkammer-like reception room with a sculpted grand piano, a large library, showcases displaying fictive objets, tables with still lifes, a whole collection of life-sized sculpted figures and representations of paintings and stuffed animals. In the middle of the room is a large lily pool, also sculpted. There are several places where viewers can sit comfortably and take it all in.
The fictive eclectic art collection includes sculptural works that look classical while also modern and contemporary. Good taste and kitsch are blended in every sculptural element. Lying here and there amongst the works is the evidence of a recent party – empty pizza boxes, beer bottles, ashtrays overflowing with cigarette ends – and laptops and mobile phones lie scattered around in this strange place.
The space speaks to the staging and simulation of prestige, as well as man’s instinct to collect, and reflects on the status of the artificial and the real.