CHARLOTTEGASH
All work

Credits

Installation, films, performances and texts by Charlotte Gash. Photography by Flavio Palasciano.

A handmade cardboard living room with a striped sofa, laptop, drinks and an orange tiled floor.

Nothing to Eat. Again

2022

A full-scale cardboard reconstruction of an artist studio apartment from which I had been evicted, functioning simultaneously as sculpture, stage and screening room. The installation examines failure and the unstable relationship between lived experience and its fictional reconstruction.

Installation: 4 × 3 × 5.5 m, dimensions variable. Cardboard, papier-mâché, plaster, paint, tape, hot glue, string, latex, projection screen, speakers and projector. Scripts for Breeder or Sucker, Episode 1 and Episode 2 are stuck on the outer wall.

Films: Projected, speakers, colour, HD. Breeder or Sucker, Episode 1 (44 minutes and 56 minutes); Breeder or Sucker, Episode 2 (44 minutes and 46 minutes).

Performance: Live performance of a scene taken from the film Breeder or Sucker, Episode 2, “Nothing to Eat. Again” — 10 minutes. Live performance of the exhibition text, “OKAY COME IN” — 10 minutes.

Texts: Okay Come In (script); Nothing to Eat. Again (script); Smack the Pretzel (exhibition text from the fake opening in Breeder or Sucker, Episode 2).

The installation hosted two performances: Nothing to Eat. Again and Come On In.

The installation is a replica of a scholarship studio apartment I received from the Akademie as part of the Lettner und Lemberger scholarship in Vienna’s 2nd district in 2022. I planned to produce and stage my diploma in the apartment, but faced eviction before my diploma and subsequently made a replica of the apartment out of cardboard.

Aligning with the rest of my work, NOTHING TO EAT. AGAIN comments on failure and the feeling of failure. The 4 × 5 m house, made entirely from cardboard, is an exact replica of the studio. It is presented as theatre, with the installation acting as both a stage and an auditorium, where viewers can sit inside and watch Breeder or Sucker, Episodes 1 and 2 — films that mimic real life and aspects of failure, as mentioned in the other part of the portfolio.

A close-up of a handmade cardboard laptop, ashtray and paper on a table.
A detail of the painted cardboard laptop and table with an ashtray and yellow objects.
A wide view of the installation with a wardrobe, sofa, table and kitchen counter.
A cardboard laptop and ashtray on a handmade table in the installation.
Handmade cardboard food, packaging and a plant arranged on the kitchen counter.
A large red cardboard condom box beneath the kitchen counter.
The striped cardboard sofa with painted cushions and handmade bottles in the foreground.
Painted cushions on the striped cardboard sofa.
A wide view of the cardboard apartment with striped sofa, low table and kitchen counter.
A handmade cardboard plant against the painted timber-frame wall.
A cardboard door with a projector above it and a handmade wall clock.
Printed publications and a handmade cardboard object on the painted floor.
A corner of the installation covered with printed texts.
Printed texts displayed on the installation wall.
The cardboard apartment installation with a striped sofa, low table and painted brick floor.
A tabletop filled with handmade cardboard food, books and kitchen objects.