House Phase Installation Series.
The little house is a replica of the artist’s parents’ hand-made Adobe home during China’s cultural revolution. The structure is designed and constructed following the simple techniques for traditional northern Chinese adobe dwelling. Local materials, including clay, sand, straw, recycled barn wood,fallen trees, were collected and used to build the little house. The Little House is a permanent installation at Art Farm, Nebraska.
The structure will gradually erode in weather and return to earth in about 30-40 years, the typical life span of a building of its type in China.
Adobe bricks are stored on covered wood planks to control the drying process.
Adobe bricks being made by pressing the mixture of clay, sand, and straw into a four brick mold.
Completion of the “Mountain Wall. Photo by Ed Dadey
A traditional Chinese wood pole framework. Also installed is the window and doorframe.
Salvaged lath from old barns is used to sheath the little house to provide a base for applying the grass thatching roofing. Photo by Ed Dadey
Native grasses are cut and bundled into approximately 2’ square “Shingles” for thatching the roof. They are layered using a wet clay and lime mortar over the lath. This long strip is about to be raised for the ridge of the little house. Photo by Ed Dadey
American newspaper articles on China are pasted onto interior walls of the little house. The horizontal platform is the adobe brick bed, (Kang) also covered with newspaper.
Photo by Ed Dadey
Photo by Ed Dadey
