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Kristin Posehn: Architectures

CAE1101

Summary Note

In her photography projects, artist Kristin Posehn photographs designed, purpose-built, and re-positioned architecture. Materials include an artist’s statement, process notes, vinyl fragments, exhibition ephemera, documentary photographs, and exhibition photographs, a brochure and a compiled newspaper.

Biographical Note

Born in Northern California, Kristin Posehn lived in Maastricht, the Netherlands, for two years as a research fellow at the Van Eyck. In the same year as Reclamation, her work was included in the exhibition "Chanting Baldessari" at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, and “Parlor and Roseville” at Kate Werble Gallery in New York City. In 2009 she was awarded the Hermine Van Bers Art Prize, NL. Posehn received her PhD in Sculpture from the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK in 2007. She has been a Visiting Tutor at the Ruskin School of Painting and Drawing, Oxford University, UK, and her work was recently anthologized in Imagine Architecture, published by Gestalten, Berlin, 2014.

Scope and Content

In the spring of 2007, while in residence at CLUI (Center for Land Use Interpretation), Kristin Posehn began developing an artwork about the remote ghost town of Metropolis, Nevada. For the initial phase of the project, she researched the history of Metropolis at archives throughout Nevada. Metropolis was founded in 1910 as a real estate venture by The Pacific Reclamation Company. However, due to insufficient water rights the town was largely abandoned and reclaimed by the desert by 1925. Through extensive site visits to Metropolis, Posehn created a comprehensive body of photographs documenting the former entrance to the Lincoln School, which is the last element of façade still standing.

From this body of photographs Posehn created a temporary sculptural installation called Reclamation, which was clad with high-resolution photographs of the original. This archway was reconstructed at 1:1 scale as a temporary public outdoor architectural installation in Almere, the Netherlands. Reclamation was installed on SITE 2F7, the last remaining undeveloped plot of land in Almere's city center. It was open for view at all times from August 31 – November 15, 2008 as part of the exhibition at Museum De Paviljoens, LOCALISMS, which was developed in collaboration with the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. In conjunction with the exhibition, the original brochure for Metropolis and a selection of covers from The Metropolis Chronicle were republished and distributed in the Netherlands and Nevada. Following the conclusion of the installation, Posehn wrote a novella set in Almere, also titled Reclamation. More information about the installation, Almere, Metropolis, and the project as a whole, can be found in the novella.

Materials for this project include documentary photographs, pieces of the self-adhesive vinyl that covered the replica arch, The Metropolis Chronicle (a republishing of selected covers from the town’s newspaper), The Pacific Reclamation Company Brochure, and exhibition ephemera.

In 2014, Posehn began to design A house made of air and distance and echoes. She first made a maquette from printed paper, cardboard, and timber, held together with clamps, then paper reference template prints for the plywood that were cut to match. The plywood elements were covered with printed vinyl created to reproduce the “carpenter gothic” style—a vernacular and improvisational offshoot from the larger Gothic Revival. The piece references the “Wedding Cake House,” a well-known example of carpenter gothic located in Kennebunkport, Maine. From this point of reference, Posehn “wiped away the house and manipulated its architectural frosting via digital process and hours of construction.” After completion of the piece in 2015, she photographed it—often in a dense tule fog.

Posehn—who is a sculptor, writer, and photographer—repositions architecture in the physical world so we can reconsider the relationships between built and natural environments, between art and architecture, between the real and the fictional. Materials include an artist’s statement, process notes, vinyl fragments, exhibition ephemera, documentary photographs, and exhibition photographs, a brochure and a compiled newspaper.

Arrangement

Kristin Posehn: Architectures is organized into two series based upon each project.
  • Series 1: Reclamation
  • Series 2: A house made of air and distance and echoes

Inclusive Dates

1911-2016

Bulk Dates

2008-2015

Quantity / Extent

.5 cubic feet

Language

English and Dutch

Related Archive Collections

  • CAE1041: Center for Land Use Interpretation: Wendover Residencies

Related Publications

Posehn, Kristin. Reclamation. Maastricht, Netherlands: Jan van Eyck Acadamie, 2012.

Vergara, Camilo Jose. American Ruins. New York, NY: Monacelli Press, 1999.

Container Listing by Series:

CAE1101/1 Series 1: Reclamation, 1911-2016

Series 1 contains the materials related to the sculptural installation project called “Reclamation” by Kristin Posehn. Materials include correspondence, artist information, documentary photographs, vinyl fragments, exhibition ephemera, and republished materials.

  • ARCH-FILE 13-1

    • 1-1 Artist Information and Correspondence, 2009-2016
    • 1-2 Project Materials and Images, 1911-2008
    • 1-3 Press Materials, 2008

Additional Materials

  • Archive F5 Oversized Items

    • 1-2#18 Reclamation Exhibition Poster, 2008
    • 1-2#19 Brick vinyl segment (1 of 4) from the Archway, 2008
    • 1-2#20 Brick vinyl segment (2 of 4) from the Archway, 2008
    • 1-2#21 Brick vinyl segment (3 of 4) from the Archway, 2008
    • 1-2#22 Brick vinyl segment (4 of 4) from the Archway, 2008
    • 1-2#29 Reclamation (2), AP, 2008
    • 1-2#30 Reclamation (3), AP, 2008
    • 1-2#31 Reclamation (4), AP, 2008
    • 1-2#32 Reclamation (5), AP, 2008
    • 1-2#33 Reclamation (16), AP, 2008
    • 1-2#34 Reclamation (18), AP, 2008
    • 1-2#35 Reclamation (19), AP, 2008

  • Archive F18 Oversized Items

    • 1-2#1 Metropolis Chronicle, Newspaper, 2008

CAE1101/2 Series 2: A house made of air and distance and echoes, 2014-2015

This series contains the materials related to the project called “A house of air and distance and echoes” by Kristin Posehn. Materials include the artist project statement, process notes, documentary process photographs, and work and exhibition photographs.

  • ARCH-FILE 13-1

    • 2-1 Process Notes and Artist’s Statement, 2014-2015
    • 2-2 Process Documentation Images, 2014-2015
    • 2-3 Work and Exhibition Prints, 2015-2016

Additional Materials

  • Archive S-Box 20

    • 2-3#16 A house made of air and distance and echoes (1), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#17 A house made of air and distance and echoes (2), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#18 A house made of air and distance and echoes (3), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#19 A house made of air and distance and echoes (4), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#20 A house made of air and distance and echoes (5), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#21 A house made of air and distance and echoes (6), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#22 A house made of air and distance and echoes (7), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#23 A house made of air and distance and echoes (8), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#24 A house made of air and distance and echoes (9), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#25 A house made of air and distance and echoes (10), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#26 A house made of air and distance and echoes (11), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#27 A house made of air and distance and echoes (12), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#28 A house made of air and distance and echoes (13), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#29 A house made of air and distance and echoes (14), AP, 2015
    • 2-3#30 A house made of air and distance and echoes (15), AP, 2015