Artist Transforms Abandoned Building into Life-Size Dollhouse

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Abandoned houses are so often imbued with a sense of sadness and loss – the feeling that someone’s memories are crumbling before your eyes. Artist Heather Benning found such a home when she took a position as an artist-in-residence in the rural community of Redvers, Saskatchewan – but what she saw was the possibility for something new and amazing. Benning turned the home into a life-sized dollhouse complete with glass walls.
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For the ‘Dollhouse’ project, Benning used the existing abandoned house as a base for a massive art installation. Starting in 2005, Benning began to overhaul the home, often using recycled materials. The home was donated to her for the project by the landowner.

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Each bedroom was lovingly re-plastered and painted in a bright, cheerful color. Benning searched for furniture and other items that would give the home a traditional dollhouse feel. Then, she removed one entire side of the home’s exterior and replaced it with Plexi-glass.

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Now, instead of gazing into broken windows to view decay and deterioration, passersby can marvel at a warm and cozy scene of domestic happiness.

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“I chose to close the house in with plexi glass because I wanted it to be inaccessible, and tomb-like – inaccessible in that one cannot enter a real dollhouse because of the scale, and tomb-like because it encapsulates a time and a lifestyle that no longer exists, and will never exist again,” Benning told The Daily Mail. “I wanted to capture a life with no internet, flat screen televisions, air conditioning, etc. When the telephone was the main contact to the rest of the world.”