headlights, houselights 2013
A house sits at the end of a one-way street, vehicles that journey along this street in the evening inadvertently and unavoidably point their headlights directly at this house; causing a bright glare into the windows, lighting up every room. The project was about blocking this relationship, deflecting the on-comers but in doing so - the work cut off the view from the inside out. Ideas of public/private, access, relationships, allowances and traces were all at play in this work.
Using opaque high-density reflective vinyl in the street facing windows I was able to block all the interior light from the exterior and vice versa, creating a vision of hyper-occupancy and ultra privacy in the inside, highlighting the windows, while blocking them completely. The reflected light blared right back at the oncoming traffic at an equal intensity, canceling out all other light and characteristics of the house and its surroundings. When the viewers used a flash on their camera- they were able to enact this same phenomenon, both of which reviled the false windows and erased the real. The occupants were no longer connected to the light in its “natural state”, but became connected to the lack of light.
A map was sent out and the work was on view for a month with driving and photographing instructions.
The house was lent by the Kyrie family at the end, they were happy to get their headlights back. A small hand made handbook was created the last week of the project from photographs taken by visitors.
directly in its line of sight
it’s a shared relationship
see the house is washed
in what is brought
after the incitment the glow is a shadow
these opposing forces create a brief animation of the night
