Shenzhen, China. 2015.

Gazing through the window of the “urban village” toward the “urban center,” signs of development and progress appear as holes in the ground and obstructions in the sky. Such holes and obstructions erode the city’s collective memories. Soon, the city’s inhabitants will step outside to discover places that they have never known. Anamnesis refers to a form of knowledge imbued with the residue of the past.  It summons those faint recollections which lie buried beneath our faculties for conscious self-reflection. When the city no longer invites this form of knowing, real and imagined places will collide.  The Hole in the (Window of the) World House draws an imaginary conduit between two distant sites of architectural fantasy.  It connects the Window of the World replica park in Shenzhen to the Fargo House in Buffalo, New York.  The Window of the World contains replicas of 130 of the world’s most famous monuments, including places like the Eiffel tower, the Pyramids and the Palace at Versailles, all reproduced in miniature within a 118 acre park-like setting.  The Fargo House is also a fantastic collection of miniature environments that, with each successive night of dreaming, move the inhabitant closer and closer to a world of impossible realities. Walking through the house, a miniature building might appear as a model, toy, statue, souvenir or symbol.  Other times, it might be imagined as a structure of brick, stone or steel that has been unearthed from its surroundings. Every so often, the house’s window is opened and the weight of that small object is projected outward.  When the object lands, it will fall upon a day dreamer’s desk in an assemblage of shifting reveries.

Project Assistants: Yumeng Chen, Meiyan Jin, Hongkai Li, Lesley Loo, Feng Zhu