Unreal Estate - NightShift

What would our lives be like if we lived up in the trees? Let these paper houses lead your mind there.

Michelle Purchase presents a cluster of quiet installations that blur the boundaries between natural and man-made space. The local artist’s softly illuminated paper houses, suspended from a handful of old trees in downtown parkettes, make light of how human ingenuity is destined to alter and evolve the landscapes within its reach.

Purchase will also have a collection of lithographs on display in Kitchener City Hall’s Rotunda Gallery during the month of November. These prints also explore imaginary spaces where nature and culture coexist, and non-traditional ideas of what comprises a home or community.

“There was a time when people lived much closer to nature, depending on it for survival and suffering when it didn’t cooperate,” writes Purchase in her artist statement about the series. “Homes were traditionally built in caves, cliffs, earth shelters, trees, valleys and hollows from sticks, stones, logs and mud. Modern cities have almost completely excluded nature from our residential surroundings. Most are sanitized environments constructed with straight lines from artificial materials.”