ABSTRACT
This chapter considers artistic adaptation of abandoned dwellings in Heather Benning’s The Dollhouse (2007–2013) and Theaster Gates’ 12 Ballads for Huguenot House (2012). In so doing, it identifies adaptation as a critical term in emerging discussions on performance and architecture. The chapter focuses on ways in which artists adapt particular dwellings and how they reveal and reflect on practices of adaptation. It addresses the conditions of a dwelling before adaptation, practices and materials of adaptation and the impact of adaptation. It focuses on Benning’s adaptation of a Canadian prairie farmhouse into a human-sized dolls’ house and Gates’ transformation of Huguenot House, in Kassel, Germany, into a temporary home and arts venue. The chapter finds that artists can significantly reimagine practices and possibilities of making, defining and articulating home and thereby find ways of engaging with buildings that have been abandoned, that may appear to lack use or purpose, and yet might offer vital ways of making sense of dwellings and, thereby, of understanding ourselves and the conditions in which we find ourselves.
