A wooden house is one of the few surviving remnants of the ghost town of Hamilton, a frontier mining town near a strike of silver ore in Nevada, USA. Established in 1868 and abandoned in roughly 1887, over 20,000 people relocated to the area around Hamilton during its boomtown rush.
Time and weather have collapsed this former residence almost completely to its foundations. The roof is strikingly warped and all but one of the supporting walls has fallen. It is remarkable as one of only a few wooden structures still remaining - most were destroyed by fire, or deconstructed and moved as settlers abandoned their stake.
Settlers house is a large-scale, freestanding photographic sculpture that "reproduces" the collapsing structure. While the work is a study of a historical building, it is just as much a vehicle for reflection on events in the present.
High-resolution photographs printed on vinyl are mounted to plywood, literally reconstructing the decaying architecture piece by piece. The photograph stands in as a ghost image of a ghost town.
Study for Settlers House
- Made possible by
- Bonnefanten Museum
- and the Jan van Eyck Academie
- With thanks to
- The Center for Land Use Interpretation
- Ron Bernstein, Coordinator Materials, Jan van Eyck Academie