'Horror Vacui' or 'fear of emptiness' was the call to arms. Somewhere along the way, we forgot how to tell the simple stories well and to cultivate fragility and feeling in both practice and life.  

This is the end of Art History as we know it, and we are privileged to be able to work through the past lives of the Masters while dreaming of the technological developments of the future. We are living amidst magic, where boundaries between body, space and time are blurred, and relationships can be cut with the click of a button. How can you know others when you cannot even understand yourself and the time you live in?

The spirit needs to be stripped back; to break down and analyse already made systems of belief, and identify new patterns for thinking, existing and developing as a sensitive and assured voice amidst the chaos. It is no mean comfort, at times when the next idea cannot be found and the whole enterprise seems futile, to remember that greater thinkers have wrestled with the same efforts to nurture both wisdom and curiosity in uncertain times. An explorer can never know what he is exploring, until it has been explored.  

It is time to harness all of it; to create the great cacophony of noise through which attuned and gifted voices can cut through like a knife and rise. Unflinching.   

The following manifesto has been developed by the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the aims and beliefs of House 2 Question:

  1. The House exists and operates as a centre of artistic excellence, at a time of scattered production and transnational ideas.
  2. The House exists as a laboratory by which to acknowledge the past in shaping the future.
  3. The House exists to assist in the spiritual, physical and intellectual development of the artists selected and embolden them in their search for their internal truth. 
  4. House 2 Question is not a passive encounter; as makers we have a responsibility to interrogate the very conditions by which we create, promote and receive ideas.
  5. The House exists for artists who immerse themselves in the ideas, politics and technology of our age, but are able to develop work which stands independently and in dialogue with this unique period of human exploration and experimentation.
  6. The House refuses to differentiate between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art; respecting the history of materials and tradition, whilst simultaneously drawing inspiration from popular culture, science and technology.
  7. The House operates outside of novelty, outside of hype and exists only to create and celebrate the meaningful and the extraordinary.

'Sharpen your wings, arm yourselves with knowledge and take flight.'

written by:
Sarah Crocker