HAZEL O’SULLIVAN

Investigating domestic material and architectural homogeny, the relationship between taste, design and socio-economics, my practice looks at the conditions of livelihood and housing politics through the narratives of Minimalism and Formalism.

Using architectural sculpture, I investigate the authority of an evolving environment over our conditions of living, the visual and textural importance of embodied space and its psychological effects. Class taste is important in this approach to making, and informs an individualistic nostalgia and a contrasting brutalist homogeny, explored through decorative materials and architectural facades. Minimalism and sometimes Formalism offer a detached narrative for me to explore this work, approaching Irish housing politics with a personal sense of disillusionment and detachment from the idea of ‘home’.
Large scale plywood paintings accompany my sculptural practice, and act as intermediate experiments that share sculptural qualities in their shape, form and perspective. Here, Minimalism helps create a narrative surrounding modern interior space and minimal living, two lifestyle choices often used to combat the chaos of vernacular space, idiosyncrasies on the verge of extinction.

When beginning the initial process of making, I often turn to drawing, painting and collage to explore architectural compositions, with domestic materials such as upholstery, vinyl tiling and veneers.

Personal experience and class-taste combine in my work to explore this context of future architectural landscape, portrayed with Formalist knowledge to express the disassociation between formal structure and quality of life. I imagine these landscapes as flat and homogenous, stretching horizontally, vertically and infinitely, mimicking digital renderings and bottomless data centres. My practice aims to present personal experience in this global context of changing landscape and housing politics, contextually cued with accompanying zines that satirically dissect language associated with real estate, commercialism and gentrification.