Persen: Place & Things

Persen: Place & Things

This semester we had the unique opportunity to create work and have a one-day exhibition, called Persen: Place & Things, at the Matthewis Persen House in Kingston. The Persen house is a stone house that was built in phases from the 1660-1920's. The house has had many roles, from family home, to tavern, to government offices. Now it is a historic site that you can tour through.

It is an amazing site. The building was built in five phases. It was added onto and added onto for 200 years, and now they are peeling back the layers exposing the history of the building. The entry room has cases that contain artifacts that were discovered on the site. If you are near Kingston, NY, it is defiantly worth touring the house. An experience that photographs can't replicate.

The work that I created was in response to a chalk line marked, on one of the walls in the room, indicating a level line. I thought this was interesting since I'm pretty sure that that line is the only level thing in the house. For the exhibition I created three hollow formed plumb bobs, and placed several new and vintage levels in the room.

There are more photos of the house and the exhibition on my Flickr and in our Flickr group. We are also compiling a catalog of the exhibition. 

Below is a video of Ken Gray — Myra's husband and also the county archivist — talking about the exhibition.