“ Architecture is always dream and function: expression of a utopia and instrument of convenience.” Roland Barthes -

3020 Laguna St. In Exitum, film teaser

3020 Laguna Street stood for 150 years as a domestic dwelling, a home. Prior to its destruction, it was transformed from a private residence into an installation art piece open to the public. In February of 2012, Highlight Gallery welcomed 9 artists to build site specific installations within different spaces of the house. The exhibition was called 3020 Laguna Street In Exitum.

Co-directors Ashley Rodholm and Joe Picard visited the show and were immediately inspired to make a short film about the project. The house was slated to be demolished shortly after the close of the exhibition, so the two quickly assembled a crew to shoot the space. Taking a cue from the Barthes quote and the curators inspiration for the exhibit, they shot the house for four days.

The artists were asked to with create their work using only existing materials within the home. So too, the film examines their art and adopts it as its subject. Each artist constructed their work in a different room which lent itself to the creation of small vignettes within each space. Some of the artists were asked to appear in the film in the context their own work. Actors were also invited into the space to interact with and highlight the art. The film weaves together these vignettes like a dream; moments of abstractions and cohesion serve to explore themes of domesticity, history, and decay.

Both a document and a memory, the film is a subjective artistic impression of the exhibit as well as a record of the art and the once home.