A house that watches back
Year:
2026
A House that Watches Back examines the suburban home as both a place of refuge and a mechanism of control. Once conceived as a peripheral escape from urban congestion, the suburban ideal has become haunted by the “good life” fantasies of Americana. Rooted in promises of ownership and autonomy, it persists as a system fractured by spatial politics, social engineering, and economic control. Featuring photographic and visual artwork from local and internationally recognized artists, each approaches the home through a hauntological lens, reading domestic space as a charged site where memory, power, and ideology linger, repeat, and refuse resolution.
The show features Gabrielle Garland, Lori Larusso, Nahla Joy, Zed Saeed, Cal Kowal, David Graham, Kelsi Haberman, and a signed monograph from Todd Hido.
Type:
Curatorial Thesis Exhibition
A House that Watches Back serves as the capstone exhibition for my curatorial graduate research. An inquiry triggered by local lore regarding a neighborhood 'haunted house,' the project asks: what truly haunts a domestic space? This investigation explores how architecture acts as a vessel for lingering social and political specters.Through the distinct visual vocabularies of several artists, the exhibition identifies hauntings not as ghosts, but as the residues of human systems. A home is haunted by the strata of lead paint hidden beneath modern finishes, by redlining and segregationist policies that enforced spatial discipline, and by the economic fluctuations that strip away security. These works collectively suggest that the domestic interior is a witness, documenting the friction between a promised Americana and a lived reality. This is a house that records, reflects, and ultimately, watches back.