"Would we slip away?"
Installation in yarn and wood
Christopher Aque
A house is viewed as both the tangible "structure" and the intangible "home". The physical exactness of a house is founded on the masculine standards of building and strength while the home is founded on the domestic unit of family and daily life. Thus, within a house, where do we find home and what does this home imply?
Would we slip away? investigates how structure can be feminized and what our implicit roles are in the creation of domesticated gender. Supported by a wood frame, representing the masculine element of homebuilding, the house is covered entirely with hand-knit fabric, a material inseparable from the role of the woman and homemaking. Is a house truly made by the support of the structure or rather the structure of the intangible home? Is a house thus made, or is it simply built? Have I assumed the role of the homebuilder or the homemaker?
The knit house complicates the traditional role of masculinity by establishing the feminine within the masculine and vice versa. Does this double presence complicate the role of art and craft? Of husband and wife? By assuming the role of both the carpenter and knitter, my actions become coupled together to interrogate these relationships and what they mean within our daily gendered structures.