Nicki Crock Imagines a Magical Dreamscape of Paper Houses

Nicki Crock is a conceptual artist currently working in Columbus, Ohio, but her head is in the clouds. Her installation series “Dream House” transforms space into an ethereal, geometric floating dreamscape made out of white paper. “A dream house is something to aspire to and long for,” she says. “What better form could a daydream take shape in, than with something that we, as humans, already use to fulfill our imaginations: clouds.”

Crock’s “Dream House” is a visual metaphor for the “dream house” we all covet, a perfect place where we can finally settle down and feel like we belong. Her installation, most recently displayed at at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, creates a space that feels weightless and dreamlike, replicating cloud shapes and using durable, folded and cut paper to create model houses. (For more on Crock’s process, check out her blog here.)

For many of us, the ultimate dream is to make money and buy your own home. Having moved many times throughout her life, Crock became interested in the ideas surrounding location and movement, and her art materializes our constant searching. “I tell the stories of place and transformation using both found and constructed materials, examining the elements of home, house and community through varied mediums including sculpture, installation, and performance.”