Peter Bialobrzeski: Nail Houses

The nail house is an image of refusal. During urban redevelopment in China, some owners refused to vacate their homes, and their dwellings remained standing inside the new construction, earmarked for demolition. Peter Bialobrzeski photographed these buildings during his travels through China, and Nail Houses brings together sixty-three photographs of them: modest, isolated structures holding their ground among newly built towers.

Bialobrzeski often photographed in the evening, when brightly lit interiors suggest domestic comfort despite cracks in the walls. The publisher describes the work as moral support for these houses and their inhabitants. That framing links the isolated structures with the human need for a home and security. The photographs approach a conflict between redevelopment and continued habitation through the buildings that remain.

The book completes the Habitat trilogy begun with Case Study Homes and Informal Arrangements. Hatje Cantz published it in 2014 as a hardcover of 116 pages and 203 by 300 millimetres, with texts by Stefanie Gommel and a design by Andrea Rauschenbusch, with German and English texts.

For a collector, the connection with Case Study Homes and Informal Arrangements gives the book a specific place within Bialobrzeski’s work. As the third Habitat volume, it continues the enquiry into housing through a defined Chinese urban situation. The evening views connect the physical condition of buildings with the comfort they still provide. This is the publication’s particular argument about a dwelling as both a structure and a source of security.

During his travels through China, Peter Bialobrzeski was fascinated by the so-called nail houses. Sur­rounded by tall, newly constructed buildings, these houses have been earmarked for demolition, but their owners resolutely refuse to vacate. In his thought-provoking series the artist photographs these isolated structures, often in the evening hours, when the brightly lit interiors convey the domestic comfort that these homes provide for their owners, despite all the cracks in the walls. Peter Bialobrzeski (* 1961 in Wolfsburg) uses his camera to offer these re­nitent structures moral support. Following the publi­cation of Case Study Homes and Informal Arrange­ments, this striking series completing the Habitat tril­ogy poses uncomfortable questions to the viewer. It also emphatically underscores the fundamental right of every human being to a home and sense of security.

Designed by: Andrea Rauschenbusch
Texts by: Stefanie Gommel
German, English
May 2014, 116 Pages , 63 Photos
hardcover
203mm x 300mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-3829-3

Publisher page editorial text:
During his travels through China, Peter Bialobrzeski was fascinated by the so-called nail houses. Sur­rounded by tall, newly constructed buildings, these houses have been earmarked for demolition, but their owners resolutely refuse to vacate. In his thought-provoking series the artist photographs these isolated structures, often in the evening hours, when the brightly lit interiors convey the domestic comfort that these homes provide for their owners, despite all the cracks in the walls. Peter Bialobrzeski (* 1961 in Wolfsburg) uses his camera to offer these re­nitent structures moral support. Following the publi­cation of Case Study Homes and Informal Arrange­ments, this striking series completing the Habitat tril­ogy poses uncomfortable questions to the viewer. It also emphatically underscores the fundamental right of every human being to a home and sense of security.

Publisher source ↗