Dwelling Rara Avis 2018

 Sunday 16h September, 11am – 4pm
A collaborative project

Amy Scott-Pillow invites the public to collaborate in the creation of a temporary dwelling inside Canute’s Palace.

In medieval times, the construction of such a large permanent stone structure would require significant prestige and wealth; in contrast to the humble peasantry buildings of the time, built from ephemeral materials such as wood, thatch and wattle.

These structures once decayed may not have a long-lasting impact like Canute’s Palace, but to build a shelter continues to require an innate skill that has ensured the evolution of the human species. Scott-Pillow reimagines that concept through the limitations of materials found within the city of Southampton.

 Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th June
Dwelling was set up outside the artist studios where the artist sat, painted, read and invited conversation about her skeletal dwelling and apotropaic marks, how and why one might make them. As well as invitation to decorate the dwelling with some of these marks with good intention. 

 Saturday 15th June
The Dwelling has been stripped bare of its cladding, revealing a skeletal form and apotropaic marks left by the builders and inhibitors. The structure has been cast out from the land and onto the tidal river Itchen, where King Canute was said to command the tide to do his bidding.  Tethered to a wreck warning in the estuary this relic from the past starkly reminds us of imminent danger of water and how rising sea levels will affect human habitation as time moves constantly and incessantly forward. 

(unfortunately the event was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, however the work remained on the river for a few weeks before being reclaimed for my garden)