Past and Future

If the past no longer exists and the future has not happened, where are you now?


Here is a photo of the past and the future - it is the present state of the room commonly known around here as the Project Room - Canadian pronunciation, please.

As part of The House Museum incarnation, the Project Room was the site of temporary installations related to thematic explorations on tourism, culture, and how we define ourselves for outside consumption. In the upper lefthand corner, you see remnants of the installation from "Step Outside the Room", a project between artist, Marlene MacCallum and ten residents of Gillams and Meadows. Marlene collaborated with the others, who (mostly) were not artists by training and ranged in age from eight to mid-70s, to create installations throughout the house using photographs each person took of the inside of their own house. The project generated a lot of wonderful conversation about a range of issues including the notion of home, how Newfoundland is transforming, and how people use their homes as an expression of themselves.

Time has moved on, the issues have changed (somewhat) and we began to transform the Project Room into a less public project room. Over time, it felt like the shift was for real and there was no going back. As the basement has become more functional as a living and storage space, this room has been emptying out of clutter - the wool has vacated and today, that pile of art supplies that F&L have mastered the art of messing up, will be organized and placed on a new shelf purchased yesterday. Order will reign supreme, at least for a moment. But more importantly, the projects happening in that room will be of a personal nature: art supplies, sewing supplies, and a permanent home for my sewing machine (did I just say "permanent"? Do I never learn?). Lucy was talking about bringing in a comfy chair so she can read in here. Suddenly the room became part of the house, not The House Museum. And with that, I finally and truly felt the passing of The House Museum as it was.

Has it disappeared forever? No, I would say not. I have plans to re-vamp the website with a new server and hope to host some summer workshops here. The House Museum no longer contained within these walls. The House Museum as a portable idea. Coming soon!