Curiosity: a love letter to abandoned houses

Wow. Two whole days later and I'm still bone-tired, as my fellow artist Donnalee put it in her post about Saturday's Art in the Open Festival in Charlottetown. Bone-tired, but also satisfied, blissed-out, and kinda speechless.

When I initially conceived of my piece for Art in the Open, I imagined it would appeal perhaps only to a certain audience, or that not everyone would feel something or have a reaction to it, but I am totally delighted with how my installation went! First of all, we had a smooth install - my amazing husband, and two great friends and I worked for 8 hours to get everything ready. The weather could not have been more perfect, and Victoria Park is a gorgeous place to spend the day.

Curiosity: a love letter to abandoned houses - monica lacey 2013

Once it was up, the reactions were so positive:  I had viewers of all ages tell me it moved them in some way, and many people, kids and adults alike, were heard to say, "this is MY house.  I'm going to just stay here." I had elderly folks say they recognized a lot of items from their childhood, kids say they thought it was the best fort ever. A friend told me they saw someone crying. People poked around, read the magazines, sat at the kitchen table, and someone even stole the salt shaker (but returned it later in the mailbox). A dog came in and laid down on the rug. There was a door at either end of the 'house' and one of the most interesting things was watching how many viewers used the doors (which worked & opened & even creaked!), and how many went around, or 'through the walls'.  Often the wall-walkers could be heard to refer to themselves as ghosts, or as having powers. I hope to hear more stories about the experiences people had in the piece as time goes on.

Curiosity: a love letter to abandoned houses - monica lacey 2013

One of my favourite stories of the night:  my friend Todd came to see the installation, and he asked me where I'd gotten the mailbox as he thought it was familiar. Turns out it was his great-grandfather's, as were several of the windows in the 'house'! After teardown I was able to give him the windows so he has a little piece of his family history.

Curiosity: a love letter to abandoned houses - monica lacey 2013

When night fell, I was a bit nervous that my lighting wouldn't be sufficient, but the lamps I'd picked up from the ReStore did the trick perfectly, and the atmosphere was wonderful at night. In fact, just before the end of the festival (midnight), a house party even broke out in the installation. I even had to kick a group of teens out so I could tear down. All-around awesomesauce :)  I loved working at this scale, and outside - what a treat! I can't wait for next year!

While I had to mostly stay with my work, I did get a bit of a chance to see some of the other projects, and while I didn't catch all of them, I did see some gloriously beautiful pieces & felt in excellent company. Huge congratulations to all of the artists, organizers & volunteers for a fantastic festival!