Phoebe has built two individual rooms, entitled Bedroom and Kitchen, each just under the length of a foot. They are filled with objects, furniture and decorations that match the scale of the room and as if the occupant were several inches tall. While some of the parts seem to have been made especially for this project, such as the wooden cabinets, many are objects that have been transformed for the piece. Bottle caps have become seats and the surface of the stove, crayons are used as table legs, an ibuprofen is now soap by the kitchen sink and a die has become a tissue box. Part of a towel has been cut to create carpeting for the bedroom and the back wall is covered with an image that has been cut and rearranged. The rooms are not physically linked and there are no doors leading out of either. Still though, the similarly playful themes and the positioning of the rooms next to each other makes both works read as connected. The kitchen has a window over the sink to denote space outside.

The combination of found and bought materials, the colorful atmosphere and the realization of what each piece of furniture or decoration is actually made of draws the viewer in, mimicking one’s development of comfort in a room. Phoebe described her thought process in making these rooms, and a focus on their interior design, with the hope to embody the transformation of a living space. The rooms evoke this transformation in terms of physical understanding and by means of meaningful presence.

What is thought provoking about Bedroom and Kitchen is that there are no people in them, although they both contain objects and marks of a very regular home life. It is somewhat creepy looking at these rooms, as the viewer it feels intrusive to examine them. For me, the transformation did not occur in the understanding of what materials were used; rather, the transformation was in considering these rooms to be someone’s home. This project evokes the moment of transition of a home from an outsider’s perspective to that of a comfortable lived-in space. It successfully makes me consider the still silence of a home during the day when no one is home versus the possible chaos of a family’s return and the ensuing night. Evidently, the design of these rooms has made me consider the lives and characters of the people that could possibly occupy them.

While these two rooms succeed to bring to mind the lives that make use of them, this sentiment would be more substantial if the rooms contained flaws, mishaps and disorder. They hold activities and chores, from the books on the shelf above the bed to the sink of dirty dishes, but still it is notable that almost everything is organized. The bed is made, the floor is cleared and the counter tops are clean. The rooms successfully embody a personality and are creatively made, however they would hold rawer sentiment if they were more unkempt, with accidents and tasks waiting to be completed.

-Susanna