Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Alex Chinneck Builds Melting Brick House for London’s Merge Festival

Alex Chinneck is frequently praised as an architectural wizard for his unusual interventions, which he creates with the help of engineering experts and legions of volunteers. In 2013, he transformed a multi-story home in Margate, UK into a steep slope that resembled a skate ramp (see our coverage here). Earlier this year, he made Covent Garden's Market Building levitate, creating the illusion of the 184-year-old edifice floating off its foundation. For his most recent work, Chinneck built a brick house made entirely out of realistic, wax parts for London's Merge Festival. The piece, titled "A Pound of flesh for 50p," was put up in early October and left to endure the elements. Over the course of the past few weeks, the house has perplexed passersby as it melted and collapsed. Chinneck recently tweeted a photo of the house in its current state. Take a look at the melting house's progress below.

Alex Chinneck is frequently praised as an architectural wizard for his unusual interventions, which he creates with the help of engineering experts and legions of volunteers. In 2013, he transformed a multi-story home in Margate, UK into a steep slope that resembled a skate ramp (see our coverage here). Earlier this year, he made Covent Garden’s Market Building levitate, creating the illusion of the 184-year-old edifice floating off its foundation. For his most recent work, Chinneck built a brick house made entirely out of realistic, wax parts for London’s Merge Festival. The piece, titled “A Pound of flesh for 50p,” was put up in early October and left to endure the elements. Over the course of the past few weeks, the house has perplexed passersby as it melted and collapsed. Chinneck recently tweeted a photo of the house in its current state. Take a look at the melting house’s progress below.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Erika Lizée, an artist based in Los Angeles, created an installation for new exhibition “Shift and Fade” at BLAM's Los Angeles location. The show challenged artists in San Diego, New York, and Los Angeles to “explore material as a metaphor for personal history.” In response, Lizée crafted “Seed of Life,” an installation based in acrylic on Duralar.
South African designer Justin Plunkett’s “Con/struct” series has more in common with the digitally-fabricated renderings of speculative architecture than documentary photography, but it illustrates an eerie collision of both formats. The images are built from a combination of photography, 3D modeling and substantial post-production editing, to form street-level perspectives of futuristic urban fantasies.
Sculptor Katie Grinnan first unveiled the sculpture “Mirage” in 2011, offering an exploration of movement and space. Constructed from friendly plastic, sand, and enamel, the piece first debuted as part of an exhibition at Brennan & Griffin. The piece is actually a cast of Grinnan’s own body, set in various poses during a yoga routine. The work also calls back to Hindu art, in which gods display several limbs and omnipresence.
Rob Voerman's massive installations and sculptures examine issues of wealth, climate change, and poverty—and where our current behaviors may take us. Projects like "The Exchange" posit that the only way to save natural resources is to tether it to currency.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List