« | »

The Burrow Study (H.H.)/ 2010-2011

The Burrow Study (H.H.) is a representation of a self-storage unit repurposed into a transitional living space. I encountered this unit on the outskirts of Santa Fe, NM in 2009, while working on a photography project documenting the ways in which people make use of provisional spaces in response to crisis. People use self-storage to store their stuff, often in response to disruptions in their domestic lives. But when unemployment, foreclosure, and other calamities force people out of their homes, storage units can be appropriated for new uses. Located in isolated places, these units feel distant from society yet manifest a human desire for refuge and comfort.

The Burrow Study (H.H.) is an exercise in enacting a social condition, meant to simultaneously create a state of curiosity and uneasiness. The miniaturized quality allows viewers total access to the unit, yet, like all representational work, its unreal qualities place a layer of fantasy between the actual subject and the viewer’s perception.