fireplace

A stranger in his own home

"He could see through the crack of the door that the gas was turned on in the living-room, but while usually at this time his father made a habit of reading the afternoon newspaper in a loud voice to his mother and occasionally to his sister as well, not a sound was now to be heard. Well, perhaps his father had recently given up this habit of reading aloud, which his sister had mentioned so often in conversation and in her letters. But there was the same silence all around, although the flat was certainly not empty of occupants. 'What a quiet life our family has been leading,' said Gregor to himself, and as he sat there motionless staring into darkness he felt great pride in the fact that he had been able to provide such a life for his parents and sister in such a fine flat."

Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis, p.20

The image is another untitled Gregory Crewdson photograph.

The Nature Of Collaboration

As an aside it is interesting to consider the nature of a collaboration, the process etc... Documentation of such is an important part of the archival process of the project. Also it seems appropriate to embark on a joint project when the brief is questioning the collective nature of domesticity.

'Oh, you mean the fireplace site?'

The Nicholas street/St. Peter's Street site is known locally as 'the fireplace site' due to the discovery in the late 1990s of a Medieval fireplace high up in one of the walls (pictured above). The traditional practice of history has ascribed value to that artifact, and many of the people we spoke to regarding the site mentioned that the, to them, the rest of the remains are of 'no historical significance'. We take umbrage to this phrase as we feel that there can be no one, definitive 'history', and so it is not possible to ascribe more value to one artifact than to another. There are several other fireplaces extant within the wall, which led us to develop our thinking regarding the rituals of domesticity, and will perhaps form part of any scheme(s) we produce.

Staircase: importance of ritual in domestic setting

"For all that passes, passes by the stairs, and all that comes, comes by the stairs: letters, announcements of births, marriages, and deaths, furniture brought in or taken out by removers, the doctor called in an emergency, the traveller returning from a long voyage."
Life A User's Manual, Georges Perec

Ideas about ritual in domesticity are borne out in the staircase. TAKA use the memory of the staircase as a conceptual driver, the staircase is seen as a room in it's own right.



The staircase plays an integral part in how we might begin to think about the intersection between the domestic and the common room space as it oscillates between public and what can essentially be considered private.