Deutscher and Hackett

In 2004 the Sydney artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro embarked on a legendary 'clean up' of an artist's studio at the Glashaus, Weilam Rhein in Germany thus transforming the contents of a profoundly messy artist's studio into a gigantic ball dextrously tied with red string. They referred to the installation as 'the entire found detritus from an artists warehouse'. The 'detritus' tied into one of the world's most aesthetically pleasing bundles rendered the space pristine so that it now echoed the white cube of the contemporary gallery scene. As Russell Storer points out, 'For their ambitiously conceived and immaculately produced installations, Healy and Cordeiro recover the materials and objects of consumer society and transform them into startling works of formal rigour and beauty.'¹ Deceased Estate, like much of the artists' output, cleverly examines the tacit relationship between art and real estate and refers to the process of gentrification that artists imbue the fringe neighbourhoods they inhabit and improve, of which they are then eventually forced out. The Glashaus Installation also references the itinerancy of artists who, through necessity and the impossibility of home ownership, are compelled to bundle up their studios and move on with disturbing frequency.

1. Storer, R., in Home Invasion: Works by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, Artspace,Sydney, 2005

LARA NICHOLLS