30 November 2010

At 9:03





This life-size dollhouse stands in Canada, alone, in the middle of a field, far removed from any urban settlement. It seems to be a preserved snapshot of the day it was abandoned. The clock is eerily stopped at 9:03, the chairs are pushed against the table, the clothes and toys lie, forgotten, where they fell in the haste of departure...
This is an art project of Heather Benning, who created the life-size 'Dollhouse' in Saskatchewan, Canada. She found a ruined farmhouse

and staged it as on the day of abandonment. She cut away one entire wall of the 2-stories high farmhouse. She restored its interior with the 1960s flair (while leaving the exterior intact). At the very end, she protected the interior she created with a glass panel. Finally, she stopped the clock at 9:03.
Heather Benning herself grew up on a farm not unlike the one she chose for her art project. As a child, she used to play in such abandoned farms. She would stage the ruins for her childhood games.

"I wanted to show the passage of time...," Benning explains. "I was able to show what it looked like before it was left, but then what it looks now, you know, 35 years later..."
It is the stopping of the clock that does it for me.
Very Miss Havisham.

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