Frost Gallery - The House of Asterion: The Single-Family House
Exhibition on Display: July 2 - August 7, 2021
Works by Dennis Chiessa, Paul Dennehy, Don Gatzke, Elizabeth Kang
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
The House of Asterion | The Single-Family House
"All parts of the house are repeated many times, any place is another place.
There is no one pool, courtyard, drinking trough, manger; the mangers, drinking
troughs, courtyards pools are fourteen (infinite) in number. The house is the
same size as the world; or rather it is the world."
-From Jorge Luis Borges' The House of Asterion
This exhibition presents a series of houses. Collectively, they challenge and
push back on single-family housing trends that produce increasingly larger
houses occupied by fewer and fewer people. It features built and speculative
projects that reimagine the possibilities of this typology as it questions the
necessity of large houses and our collective preconceptions of the house. It
features seven houses presented through drawings, photographs, and models that
range in size from 900 to 1,950 square feet.
The work and the exhibition are inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' The House of
Asterion in which the narrator, Asterion, describes his house as being "the
same size as the world; or rather it is the world". The work is collaborative,
two of the projects were designed with Paul Dennehy and Don Gatzke while at
Dennehy Architects. The final models in the exhibition were produced by
Elizabeth Kang. All the work was done with and inspired by clients, their
stories, and their sites (both real and imagined).
We hope that the houses in this exhibition as they exist in a specific place,
through the drawings, photographs, and models provoke a critical discussion
about this most common housing type within the sprawling metropolis of DFW.
ARTIST BIO
Dennis Antonio Chiessa leads Ch_Studio and is Assistant Professor of Architecture
at The University of Texas at Arlington. Through creative practice, research
and teaching, he examines the impact of design on underrepresented, underserved,
and underinvested communities.
Dennis' design work and research has been exhibited in Latinos in Architecture
(LiA) exhibits across Texas, The Amarillo Museum of Art, and the 2021 Venice
Architecture Biennale. His work received First Place in the Tandy Hills Pavilion
Design Competition (with Dennehy Architects), First Place in the Real Stories
Design Competition, a Studio Award from AIA-Fort Worth, several Honor Awards
in the Enlaces juried exhibition in Dallas and has been published in Texas
Architect Magazine. Dennis received the 2018 Young Professional Award and the
2019 President's Award from the American Institute of Architects - Fort Worth
chapter.
Dennis is the recipient of several research grants including: a UTA_CAPPA Water
and Human Settlements Grant (PI with Co-PI's Dr. Taner Ozdil, Dr. Rod Hissong
and Nazanin Ghaffari) for 'North of the Island' to conduct research the impact
of development on the Latino community of Fort Worth; a Research Enhancement
Grant for 'Housing the Working Class' a research project that analyses the
housing and labor relationship within Fort Worth's Historic North Side; and a
Conference and Workshop Grant for the Advancement of Diversity for "Open City:
Equity in Planning and Design for Neighborhoods Under Neglect." (PI with Dr.
Joowon Im (PI), and Co-PI's Dr. Diane Allen Jones and Brad Bell).
Dennis serves as Chair of Latinos in Architecture of AIA-Fort Worth and is a
member of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committees at the Texas Society of
Architects and in the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs at
UTA. Through his advocacy for the Latino community, he has designed and
organized exhibitions, lectures
ABOUT THE ARTS COUNCIL OF FORT WORTH
The Arts Council of Fort Worth was formed in 1963 to provide funding and leadership to
stimulate and assure the advancement of the arts throughout Fort Worth. Today's Arts Council
continues to promote, nurture, and support the arts in Fort Worth by providing fiscal and
business resources to local artists and arts groups while also serving the community
through management of the Fort Worth Public Art Program and Fort Worth Community Arts
Center. The Arts Council of Fort Worth is supported in part by the City of Fort Worth and
the Texas Commission on the Arts. For more information, please visit www.artsfortworth.org.
ABOUT THE FORT WORTH COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER
Located at 1300 Gendy Street, the Fort Worth Community Arts Center is part of the most
architecturally significant museum districts in the United States, Fort Worth's Cultural
District. The Arts Center's mission promotes experienced and emerging artists with nine
indoor galleries and an outdoor courtyard gallery. The Arts Center's Hardy and Betty
Sanders black box theatre and the William Edrington Scott Theatre hosts a wide range of
performances by local and nationally known artists and organizations. The historically
significant building is home to artists' studios, nonprofit arts organization office
suites, and classrooms. Learn more at www.fwcac.org
