The latest artist to turn an abandoned residence into a full-scale, no-holds-barred art piece is German artist Thorsten Brinkmann, who transfigured a single-family home in the suburbs of Pittsburgh into a giant collage of found items, taking much inspiration (read: fake grass, disco balls, vinyl records) from the 1970s decor found inside. Over the course of two years, Brinkmann covered a sloping wall in cabinet doors, installed salon chairs in the home theater, built an indoor boxing ring, and hulked a giant bell prop from a cancelled kids' show in the entryway. The bedrooms are furnished in old records and, because Brinkmann's specialty seems to be abstract collage work involving the human body, there's also a floor-to-ceiling sculpture made of hacked up mannequins, toys, and industrial refuse. Up against Paris' nine-floor apartment complex recently upended by over 100 street artists, Brinkmann's work is smaller in scale but richer in weirdness. Indeed, La Hütte Royal, which Brinkmann exhibited for the Carnegie International 2013, is odder than most of the art-transformed abandoned properties on God's green earth, which, considering what people have done with old Victoria's Secret outposts, French warehouses, public bathrooms, and YMCAs, is really saying something.
· Thorsten Brinkmann Transforms Abandoned House Into Artspace [Design Boom]
· All Abandonment Issues posts [Curbed National]