Tom Puckey "Five Houses / Five Cities. Project for transformation of innerspaces"

‘From March to mid-June this year, Tom Puckey will carry out an extensive project in five cities in the Netherlands. Briefly, the project concerns the re-creation of five house-interiors, consecutively, one in each city, with a live work performed to mark an end of each stage. The building materials will be a spectrum of chemicals and metals (...). The practical work will be realised according to a metaphysical model, which relates the inner/outer nature of the person to the newly created interior and the associated working/ living behaviour. Tom Puckey will spend about two weeks on the re-creation of each space, always followed by the live work, and a public exhibition of this space. Until then an exhibition of drawings and other material used during the construction work will be installed elsewhere. The project as a whole is based on metaphysical aims, a work on and through spirit, being and transformation.’ ('Tom Puckey. Five Houses / Five Cities. Project for transformation of innerspaces.’, De Appel, 3 (1983) 1, p. 6.) ‘Maastricht, March 5 through 19: iron and sinc. The ground floor and the first floor of the house in Maastricht were used for the realisation of the project. Cracks and holes in the walls induced the installation of a system of waterfalls and gutters made of zinc. Iron oxide stained the water red. Amsterdam, March 27 through April 16: sulpher and lead. In the Amsterdam house splits and knots in the beams induced the installation of plaster molds in which casts were made of lead, forming a 'spine' several meters long for the lead 'skins'. The sulpher was given the form of a rock and was placed at one end of the lead construction. Eindhoven, April 16 through 30: copper sulphate and brass. Unlike the other houses, the house in Eindhoven did not yield any usable signs. The signs that were used here come from Puckey's consciousness and are based on his experiences in the house. The dispersion of the rooms resulted in a spiral form. 'Supports' of this spiral were installed in all places. At the end or beginning of the spiral on the first floor, stood a huge brass funnel. Rocks of copper sulphate were placed in the top of the supports. (...) Arnhem, May 7 through 21: carbon and aluminium (parallel exhibit in Municipal Museum, May 21 through 26) Groningen, May 28 through June 11: salt and copper (parallel exhibit in De Zaak, June 11 through 19).’ (Sabrina Kamstra, Five Houses / Five Cities. Project for transformation of innerspaces’, De Appel, 3 (1983) 2, pp. 34, 35.)