Metatum

METATUM is an autobiographical installation with sound, to depict “home” as timeless and siteless nest. It presents two facets of domesticity; the primitive dwelling and the contemporary habitat. ‘Metatum’ portrays a warped historical morphology of the primitive Cretan hut (mitato), materialised with domestic dust and the recording of the soundscape of vacuum cleaning. It shifts the paradigm for the establishment of the Heimlich, by inviting the audience to reconsider the actions that one performs regularly and solely at home, which also define the homely. METATUM is made with the collected and disinfected domestic dust of the artist’s current place of residence of a period of a calendar month, molded to the proportionate –yet out of scale– form of the archetypal Cretan mitato. The uncanny and peculiar object hosts the sound of the vacuum cleaner recorded during dust collection in a 15min clip in loop. The object is visually complemented with a plan sketch of the structure. The drawing is made in layers and gives an imaginary impression of the hollow space generating the sound of the sculptural object.

METATUM 2.0 – “Beggar’s Velvet” is the second version of METATUM created and curated for the HOUSE AND HOME exhibition at Suffolk Archives (2021-22). Bearing the form of a typical and recognisable housing unit, METATUM 2.0 draws from the line in Amanda Hodgkinson’s novel 22 Britannia Road: “beggar’s velvet… making poetry from skin flecks and hair and household dust”.

Listen to METATUM on SoundCloud.