Ina Installation
Luke's Gallery, Portland, OR, 2016. With Dillon Phillips
Area:  275 sq ft/ 26 sq m

The decay of Ina’s house, and its contents, makes one reflect upon presence and absence. Or how inanimate objects – and the house – induce a multitude of stories. It is a subject that speaks to everyone's heart. Luciana Varkulja went through a collection of over 100 photographs, narrowing down to 16 selected images and placing them initially on a simple white wall. The goal was to create a narrative from the sequential standpoint of someone who is entering the house. It was also important to think about something that could add some dynamism to the image group. A ‘cinematographic’ sense of zooming in and out was created with images in two different scales.

The idea was then presented to a few potential venues, and a small local gallery embraced the project. The gallery and its space inspired the design of an installation with no use of walls: Ina would float in the gallery's space, hung from its ceiling. The work from the Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica was a reference.

To augment the photograph’s ephemeral quality the images were printed on cotton fabric and suspended in the gallery from a wood framing system. The original fabric had some level of transparency, which we wanted, but it was too bright. Black tea was used to dye the fabric in order to find the desired color. The wood framing system is twofold – conceptually the frame compresses the gallery volume into a more domestic scale while the irregularly distributed members evoke the sensation of being within a decaying structure.