Design
Trompe-l'oeil of the Day: Inside a Building Destroyed by an Earthquake
A voyeuristic portrait of life inside as it was lived before the Christchurch earthquake.
At a collapsed building in Christchurch, New Zealand, artist Mike Hewson's eerie installation is a trompe-l'oeil vision of the past.
In "Homage to Lost Spaces," at the half-standing Cranmer Courts, Hewson used plywood to patch up windows and rebuild walls, erecting a shell of the stone building’s former shape. The boards show mixed-media portraits taken from inside the studios of artists—including that of Hewson’s brother, riding the bike in the image below—who worked in the building before it was destroyed in February, 2011. Together, they offer a voyeuristic portrait of life inside the building as it was lived before the earthquake.