Interactive Art
Seattle Artists Breathe Life Into Houses Slated for Demolition (Hyperallergic)
Summary: Seattle gallerists Zoë Hensley and Sammy Skidmore launched Once Removed, a project that temporarily transforms vacant houses slated for demolition into site-specific art exhibitions. The first iteration in Greenwood drew 350 visitors and featured works made from impermanent materials like wax, cornstarch, and charcoal, left in situ before demolition. The organizers are planning two more installments in West Seattle and Ballard, with developers now proactively reaching out. The project functions as a deliberate counterweight to both gentrification and the loss of shared physical cultural space.
Why it matters: For interactive art practitioners, Once Removed offers a replicable model for staging high-impact, time-limited installations outside the commercial gallery system, with direct implications for how artists negotiate access, materials, and audience engagement in contested urban environments.
Context: Seattle’s housing crisis and rising homelessness form the unavoidable backdrop, but the project’s core operational insight is its use of demolition timelines as both constraint and creative catalyst.
"“We want to act as a little eddy in the stream of gentrification, giving these houses one last burst of life before they’re gone,” one of the organizers of “Once Removed” told Hyperallergic." — HYPERALLERGIC
Commentary: The key operational takeaway is the shift in developer relations: after the first house, owners began reaching out proactively, suggesting a repeatable pipeline for site access. The 14-day build cycle and reliance on impermanent materials (wax, cornstarch, charcoal) define a workflow that prioritizes speed and low overhead over preservation. For institutions, the model challenges standard exhibition timelines and conservation protocols, while for artists it offers a low-barrier entry to public installation work with built-in audience urgency.
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:20:19 GMT
URL: https://hyperallergic.com/seattle-artists-breathe-life-into-houses-slated-for-demolition/
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (71%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Delcy Morelos creates monumental soil installation by hand at the Barbican (Dezeen)
Summary: Colombian artist Delcy Morelos has created a 24-metre-wide installation at the Barbican’s Sculpture Court, using over 30 tonnes of soil and clay infused with spices, hand-moulded into an oval form with a central void.
Why it matters: For interactive art practitioners, this work demonstrates how large-scale, hand-built earth installations can be staged within institutional spaces, raising questions about material sourcing, labor logistics, and the sensory experience of scent in gallery environments.
Context: The Barbican’s Sculpture Court has hosted other large-scale installations, but this piece’s use of organic, aromatic materials and manual construction methods is a departure from more typical fabricated or digital works.
"Colombian artist Delcy Morelos has created Origo, a 24-metre-wide installation made from spice-infused soil at the Barbican Centre’s Sculpture Court in London." — DEZEEN
Commentary: The reliance on hand-moulding over 30 tonnes of material implies a significant labor investment and a rejection of industrial fabrication, which may influence how institutions budget for and schedule such works. The spice infusion adds a temporal, olfactory dimension that challenges standard preservation and visitor flow protocols.
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:00:25 +0000
URL: https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/03/delcy-morelos-origo-installation-barbican/
AI Sentiment Score: Negative (50%)
AI Credibility Score: 10.0/10 — High
Scores and text generated by AI analysis of the source article indicated.Post ID: f5da825a