HOUSE / RESIDENT

BY EVA L MATOS, JUNE 2020

House/Resident is a collection created during quarantine, at a time where I could only use the resources I already had in my home. It is a multimedia self-portrait, created using a variety of “scrap” materials like cardboard, paper towels, newspaper, etc.

The result is a desperate and chaotic act of collecting objects that could be considered “lesser” in the hierarchy of art materials, but are ubiquitous around the house, in order to be able engage in the process of creating art—one that I find necessary and therapeutic in the course of my normal life—in a time where there are no such things as readily available art supplies. The resulting pieces resemble more of a three-dimensional collage consisting of recycled materials, rather than something created with a more “classical” approach, such as an oil painting or a clay sculpture.

Above: House complete with Resident (OR) Meticulous Escape from a Corporeal Reality, 2020 Polymer clay, cardboard, newspaper, paper mache, acrylic paint and fabric.

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Perhaps the oils and marbles of classical art offer a certain ethos or “aura” that, at first appearance, may become lost while using scrap materials instead. I overtly disagree with the thought that “trash” lacks a mythical aura—on the contrary, it could be argued that discarded materials hold a higher voltage within them. These materials helped me create a more accurate self-portrait: One that is rooted in a time and place. The newsprint contains the heavy burden of current events and the meticulous arrangement of materials evoke the crazed organizing of “stuff”—material or immaterial—that often comes with domestic boredom.  

The process of creating the doll itself involved certain “domestic” practices, such as sewing, glueing down and repairing things that had been broken. The subject matter is the domestic environment itself. This environment is effectively the one thing I have spent the most time observing, but only now do I realize that I’ve spent so much time observing it also in my regular life. This piece is a humorous echo chamber of isolation.

Fig. 1: House and Resident / Fig. 2: Resident