B.
I lived here
Behind the scenes
Some public art has been ruined by the earthquake: look at poor old Godley and Rolleston. But some has actually become better and more resonant – risen to the occasion, you might say. A prime example sits inconspicuously at the entrance to a suburban driveway on Breezes Road near the settling ponds, in the heart of the hard-hit east.
Ronnie van Hout I lived here 2007. Courtesy the artist. Image source: Francis van Hout
Ronnie van Hout created this monument to himself back in 2007, as part of a project for the television series New Artland hosted by Chris Knox. About as stripped back and no-frills as a monument gets, it simply marks the fact that Ronnie van Hout, artist, lived in this house from 1962 to 1972. (Thanks to Ronnie's brother Francis for these video stills.)
Ronnie van Hout I lived here 2007. Courtesy the artist. Image source: Francis van Hout
Ronnie called the project I lived here but I remember him being very emphatic, on the day it was launched, that it wasn't actually about him. The 'I', he insisted, was any person who led a life in this neighbourhood. And three or four years on, that simple assertion carries a sad new weight.
As far as I can tell, Ronnie's old family home has just escaped falling inside a so-called 'orange zone' – one of those tracts of land whose future fate hasn't yet been decided. But in the large red zones to the northwest and southwest where so many houses are to be demolished, thousands of people will soon be saying 'I lived there'.
Related
Collection
Ronnie van Hout House and School
Ronnie van Hout’s installation recreates his childhood home in Aranui, a suburb of eastern Christchurch, and his primary school in nearby Wainoni. A looped video replays his daily bike ride between the two locations. Together, these elements present the story of van Hout’s beginnings.
Familiar architectural structures, however, are taken beyond the ordinary by the presence of a hovering, makeshift UFO, whose surveillance results appear on a nearby monitor. Can we read this as a picture of suburban childhood experience as an alien might see it, or as the artist’s memorial to the need for imaginative survival and escape?
(Above ground, 2015)