Alice Austen House Museum, Staten Island, NYC; interstices, by AM Hoch: site-specific installation, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, site-specific installation at Alice Austen House Museum (2002): shot of entry with oil on canvas painting: September 11 (large), 58 x 68 inches, 2001A. M. HOCH, September 11 (large), oil on canvas, 58 x 68 inches, 2001A. M. HOCH, (exhibited on adjacent wall in entry): September 11 (small), oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches, 2001A. M. HOCH, interstices, site-specific installation at Alice Austen House Museum (2002): September 11 Mural, in entry to Alice Austen House; painted with acrylic glazes, with small eye hole cut out to see imbedded video of harbor shoreline, 2002A. M. HOCH, DETAIL of September 11 Mural with embedded video of super-8 film of harbor shoreline A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: living room with paintings on mirrors, video projections on baseboards, bureau with camera obscura, and video loops hidden inside various furniture and household objects, 12 x 15 feet, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: video projection with mirrors, cast shadows, and painted mirrors, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: painted mirrors on floor A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: ripped-open chair with embedded video loop of child’s hand touching surfaces inside the house, 45 inches x 31 inches x 33 inches, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: armoire with embedded camera obscura reflecting the outside lawn and harbor, and typewriter with embedded video; 76 inches x 43 inches x 25 inches, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: typewriter with video loop of blinking eye projected onto pageA. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: parlor with embedded videos (in shoe on top of basket and ink bottle on top of book), 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: ink bottle with embedded video of woman riding a bicycle in circles; approximately 2.25 inches in diameter; 200217. A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: dining room with glass case of objects including sugar bowl with embedded video, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: sugar bowl with embedded video, 2002 A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: view of living room with glaze-painted mural with tiny eye hole on left with embedded video of hand continuously writing “the eye is the I is the eye …”, 2002A. M. HOCH, interstices, DETAIL: Detail of keyhole (in door in living room leading to secret staircase) with embedded video of a woman walking upstairs; approximately 0.5 inches in diameter; 2002
“interstices” was a site-specific installation for the Alice Austen Museum, sponsored by The Newhouse Center for Art in New York, as part of a large international exhibition in New York City. In 2001, More than two dozen artists from around the world were invited to create art that related in some way to Staten Island’s picturesque north shore, which was dramatically altered by the September 11th attacks during the development of this exhibition.
Using the shoreline house of Alice Austen, the pioneering Victorian photographer, I wanted to allow the house itself—the walls, the baseboards, the keyholes, and underneath cushions—to tell the story of her complicated life and coded sexuality. Video loops and camera obscuras were embedded into various furniture and household objects; video projections, cast shadows and mirrors were incorporated into the existing interior. Using the notions of the domestic interior and the camera as visual conceits for the self, this installation explored the complex relationship between the “eye” and the “I.”
In his review of site-specific installations in and around New York City in 2002, The New York Times art critic Holland Carter wrote: “Best of all though, is Amy Ho[t]ch’s indoor work at the Alice Austen House…. Ms. Ho[t]ch’s tender, spirit-summoning work…consists mostly of nearly inconspicuous video installations. Look through a keyhole and you see figures climbing stairs; at the bottom of a sugar bowl two women…sip tea. In the parlor, waves of harbor water splash across the walls, turning Austen’s house into a piece of living sculpture where outside and inside are one.”
