HOW TO BUILD A DISASTER PROOF HOUSE | TRACEY SNELLING

Is it possible to find shelter from the anxiety and uncertainty of the present?
Tracey Snelling (Oakland, 1970, currently based in Berlin) reflects on the complex picture of adverse circumstances—ranging from meteorological to socio-political phenomena—that we are forced to face in the present. How to Build a Disaster Proof House is an installation created in 2022 during a residency at U-M. For Snelling, the “here and now” is essential: immersing herself in places, connecting with people. The elaborate installations she creates are always the result of research and relationship-building.
The Disaster Proof House was built using objects and furnishings, incorporating structures, ornaments, and decorative details. Until its completion, the artist worked on it “live,” deliberately allowing the process to be observed, letting viewers witness the space as it changed and took shape.
Snelling’s works materialize in what could be described as “3D non-linear sculptural films”—complex installations that combine video, photography, sculpture, sound, and assemblage. She collects and processes materials; nothing is produced ad hoc but instead is recovered and meticulously assembled, with an approach that blends voyeurism and social inquiry, mixing images downloaded from the web with film clips or advertising graphics. A white, anonymous sofa—familiar precisely because it is anonymous—cushions, brightly colored walls, and wallpaper with waterfalls or exotic plants: this chaos of color and sound aims to distract us while simultaneously reassuring us.
Who wouldn’t feel at home with a life-size cardboard cutout of a Hollywood celebrity, who has built a career and mythos around the role of the “good guy” and “lone man against the world”? Whether it’s Neo or Johnny Utah, Snelling seems to say, we feel at home. And we can (and want to) believe it.

Tracey Snelling
Disaster Proof House with Keanu
2022
miniature sculpture of the Disaster Proof House installation
courtesy of the artist and Studio la Città, Verona

19/04/25