Alessandra Henriquez

A Bottle of Alê | New Media Artist | Performance + Writing + Installation | she/her

[nixscriptum]

the archive of almosts.

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Final Index — SPACES Intermediate Sculpture Spring 2025

11. QCQ #3

12. A Structure Within A Structure: Research

Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3

13. A Structure Within A Structure: Materials in the World

14. A Structure Within A Structure: Final

15. QCQ #4

16. Memory of Spaces (Negative Fragments)

17. Memory of Spaces: Research

18. Memory of Spaces

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Memory of Spaces — Bathroom (2025)

Work Description

In the spirit of finding inspiration in the spaces that fill our memories, I wanted to capture impressions of a place that I often use as a setting in my video art—my bathroom. I created casts of different parts of my bathroom: the underside of my sink, my shower head, the left side of the toilet paper holder, and the tiled surface of the wall above my sink. These are all parts of the bathroom that I use often, and they’re areas I use for my art. As such, I wanted to capture them and render the memories of the space through tangible means. The original exhibition setup was with the smaller plaster casts hanging on the wall where they would go in my actual bathroom, with a hanging shower liner dividing the space between the sink area and the “bathtub.” The documentation photos show the casts outside of my house, where their material of creation causes them to blend with the external materials of the house’s exterior. Thus, the interior is reconciled with the outside, and each impression represents textures that carry the memories of their original owners.

Images

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Memory of Spaces (Negative Fragments)

Cast of the underside of a doorhandle

Cast of the bottom of a classroom stool (under the seat area)

Cast of a box cutter

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Videos as inspiration for Memory of Spaces project:

Sinking (2025)

Concept #1: A cast of the space around and inside my kitchen sink. This would be in an effort to take my site specific video installation, Sinking (2025) and make it viewable outside of my house. This work investigates the idea of familiar horror, domesticity, and how a space absorbs memory.

In the Mirror (2024)

Concept #2: A cast of different objects and spaces in my bathroom. I make a lot of art in my bathroom, including photos and videos, but none of these are tangible. It would be interesting to start using the physical space in a sculptural approach.

Matriz (2025)

Concept #3: A cast of the space between my mother's mattress and her bed frame. This would create a representation of space invisible to the eye, but it still represents my mother's bed. In other words, an alternate presentation of my thesis work, Matriz, where I compared my mother's mattress to her womb in which I was nurtured.

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"'With the function of shelter denied, the house becomes sculpture.' However, it is not only the utilitarian function of the house that is denied, but the function of the modern house as the built representation of an idea."

— "Concrete Blond: A Probe into Negative Space where Mysteries are Created" by Joanna Merwood, from Chora 2 (1996)

Rachel Whiteread's House (1993) is the concrete cast of a nineteenth-century London house interior, the last of a row of terrace houses demolished for the development of a park. Though it physically presents the space of the domestic structure as an object, it is impossible for a person to pass through the structure itself. As such, Merwood argues, the house becomes a "re-presentation" of the original, a form of representation that transforms familiarity into something completely unfamiliar. However, does the house cease to become a house just because it can no longer be used?

In thinking about artists such as Oscar Tuazon who create structures that simply "are", I am skeptical to say Whiteread's House stops being a house because it became a sculpture. To me, both notions can be true at the same time. While it does lose its functionality (and therefore its built representation of the idea of the house), I would still consider it a house due to it physically representing the interior of the space. Merwood mentions Paul Ricoeur's distinction of image and fiction, arguing that House is fictional in that it "show[s] something about [the interior space] that was previously unknown or undiscovered." I guess it is, to a degree, since space itself has no physical image that can be visibly seen and referenced. However, I would argue Whiteread's sculpture better sits somewhere between image and fiction as opposed to being fully fictional. It takes the known concept of space and gives it form, which simultaneously exists in the real world but also does not exist as a solid body.

I also wanted to mention that the sense of disturbance from turning something familiar into something unfamiliar reminded me of Paolo Virno's concept of "familiar horror", which describes when the familiar returns in disguise. The article "Familiar Horror: Towards A Critique Domestic Space" by PV Aureli discusses this in more detail, relating this sense of horror specifically to the domestic space. It serves as a nice read to accompany Merwood's critique of architectural sculpture as it relates to houses as a whole.

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QUESTION

Does an object lose its non-artistic identity once it becomes a sculpture?

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"家 (jiā)" (2025) — A Structure Within A Structure

Work Description

"家 (jiā)" operates in the mode of artists like Oscar Tuazon, who gathered different materials to construct unconventional architectural structures. It is a small shelter-like space built using scrap materials from my dad's workshop, much like a child creates forts using found materials from their home. The construction is not informed by careful plans in the standard way of architecture; instead, it responds to the whims of the artist attempting to materialize a basic notion of "house." The sculpture consists of a steel metal frame, cardboard, pallet wood, and assorted fabrics. The word 家 (jiā) in Mandarin means "house", but it also means "family." This is in reference to how the house was built between myself and my dad. It is the result of our bond, one which is shaky yet can bear positive fruit under the right conditions.

Images

[openingadoor]

Janet Cardiff

The Telephone Call, 2001/2023

[fashionlandscapeblog]

Paul Sermon

Telematic Dreaming, 1992

[bitesizedpoetry]

Sylvia Plath, aged 22, in a letter to Gordon Lameyer (dated Saturday, 6 November 1954)

[mentaltimetraveller]

Cady Noland, Our American Cousin, 1989, poles, stanchions, barbeque grill, bed frame, hamburger rolls, beercans, bumper, Bungee cords, tow strap, license plates, car equipment, 107 × 305 × 305 cm.

Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland

[polychroniadis]

Rotating Kitchen by Zeger Reyers. Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, 2009.

[aarchval]

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (from Fetish Series, Iowa), 1977.

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A Structure Within A Structure: Research #3

Oscar Tuazon, Manual Labor (2012). Installation view, Galerie Eva Presenhuber

Oscar Tuazon, Sleep (2013). Photo Bernd Borchardt, Berlin.

Oscar Tuazon, Los Angeles Water School (2023). cardboard, wood, tape, tree, fountain. Installation view. From the series “Water School,” 2016–. Photo: Thor Brødreskift.

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A Structure Within A Structure: Research #2

Oscar Tuazon. Beer Bottle Test Column (2008), mixed media. Installation view, The Station, Miami.

Oscar Tuazon, Untitled (2010), mixed media. Installation view, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland.

Oscar Tuazon, Raped Land & The Trees, Illuminations: 54th Venice Biennale, 2011

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A Structure Within A Structure: Research #1

Oscar Tuazon, Building (2023), wood, steel, glass, 12 × 4 × 3 m. Courtesy: the artist; photograph: Lisa Rastl.

Oscar Tuazon, Words for Water (2024). Installation, Wood, canvas, video, glass, paint, folding chairs. Photo courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery.

Oscar Tuazon, Wall Shelter (2016). Installation. Photo courtesy of Galerie Chantal Crousel.

Do Ho Suh — 348 West 22nd Street, Apartment A, Unit-2, Corridor and Staircase (detail), 2011–15, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, anonymous gift, installation view, Do Ho Suh: 348 West 22nd Street, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, November 10, 2019–Ongoing, © Do Ho Suh, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

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Materials in the World — C&R Metals Visit