Tides: Spatial Memory of Being
Tides: Spatial Memory of Being
A site-specific installation for NADA House 2023
September 1- October 1, 2023
For the fifth edition of NADA House, CUE Art Foundation presents Tides: Spatial Memory of Being, a site-specific installation by Cornelius Tulloch. The work is presented on the porch of Nolan Park House 18 at Governors Island, in conjunction with Tulloch’s solo exhibition at CUE’s gallery space entitled Vendah.
The installation reimagines the porch space of the house by embedding within its railing fabric that depicts collaged scenes of Black and Caribbean domestic life. Screening in the porch space, Tulloch explores the notion of spatial memory within vernacular architecture. A montage of the artist’s archival family photos and imagery of ornamental ironwork are incorporated into the facade of the existing structure. The installation recontextualizes the lived experience of the porch space, and puts it into conversation with other cultural contexts.
Tides builds upon Tulloch’s ongoing practice that explores vernacular architecture to investigate cultural hybridity in tactile and sensory ways. The simple architectural language of the porch allows for a continual transformation. As the entryway to the home and a middle ground between the private interior and the public realm, the porch functions as a threshold between domestic experience and forms of cultural exchange that build community. Referencing the water that surrounds Governors Island, Tulloch connects the site spatially to the archipelagos of his ancestry, reflecting upon the persistent fluidity of people and culture.
