A cluster of house frames will soon populate the High Museum’s piazza as the first in a series of projects commissioned for a two-year initiative to further develop its outdoor space. The installation, titled Mi Casa, Your Casa, is the work of Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. From July 18 through November 2, it will feature over 35 open red steel house-shaped frames installed on the piazza and throughout the Woodruff Arts Center campus.
Esrawe and Cadena established their Mexico City-based design firm E+C over five years ago, and both are currently designers-in-residence at the High. If the piazza installation looks familiar, it may be because the duo previously designed two monochromatic reading rooms within the “Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting” exhibition last year. Their houses will also resonate nicely with Lichtenstein’s familiar House III on the lawn.
“We want to create a space that makes visitors proud of who they are and where they live, that allows them to feel a sense of belonging,” said Esrawe in a press statement. “We want people to say, ‘This is my city, my home.’”
The house frames will be placed both in clusters and as individual forms. During the day there will be swings, easels, bins of chalk, buckets of bubble water, and other recreational options for visitors to explore. As part of its new Friday Night Lates series (half-price admission from 4 to 9 PM), the High will present evening programs featuring live music, varying artistic pairings, and other performances on the piazza.
Esrawe and Cadena will create a new installation for the summer of 2015 that will be inspired by reactions and interactions with the 2014 project.