Chester County artist opens his home
The minute you walk in the door, you’re looking out a window. In other words, as soon as you’re in, you’re out again. Sort of.
Part of a ceiling is an assembly of exposed pipe. The “carpets” are made of dirt and iron. And then there are the easy chairs, a resting place where you can look into a huge hole in the floor, its interior painted black. An abyss? Do you really want to contemplate what’s in there?
Doug Mott’s “house” is more form than function, more an exploration of dreams and memories than anything you’d actually live in.
“If you remove the function and utility from a building clearly designed to be a house, and instead create a visually interesting place to visit for a short time, you challenge visitors to rethink the places they inhabit. To me, this is more of a home than a house.”
Mott actually intended to live in the structure at one point, and he still does. But nine months ago, after he’d finished the exterior in a conventional way, he turned the interior into a work of art. It was the final project for a Master of Fine Arts program.
“The whole idea is to challenge our notions of space, particularly living space, “Mott says. Ask a real estate agent what the most important rooms in a house are, and he’ll say the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. But this house has none of those, although it does have a representation of an attic and a basement, two of the places any little kid will tell you are the most interesting places to go, if also sometimes the scariest.
“In a way, it’s a three-dimensional mapping of the inside of my head,” Mott says. “It’s an interior that shows my interior.”
Douglas Mott is a designer, builder and artist, living and working in Chester County.
The installation is open to the public by appointment May 26 through June 30 by calling 610207-4788 or email pasculptor@gmail.com.