Rachel Deiterding

Tiny Futures: welcome home is an imagined exhibition project designed to be installed at Museum London in the Ivey Galleries. This project was developed as part of my degree requirements for my BA is Art History and Museum Studies at Western University in March 2020.

Building on a history of exhibitions that have sought to unsettle ideas of domestic space, Tiny Futures: welcome home uses a cross-section of contemporary art, activism, and architecture to challenge traditional perceptions of what housing can and should look like. The work confronts the current housing market, which is largely unaligned, out of reach, and out of sync with contemporary society. Tiny homes are presented as an idyllic housing alternative that imagines a more equitable, sustainable, and efficiently designed housing market. It is acknowledged that tiny homes are not a catch all solution, but an option which illustrates the potential for new ways of thinking and living where inhabitants have more freedom to control how they live. The radical potential of tiny homes is further illustrated through an exploration of their use as a tool within activist movements to influence how the public thinks about homelessness, our right to shelter, and personal connections to the land. 

Tiny Futures: welcome home asks us to reconsider our priorities, our needs, our futures, and how we organize ourselves in space. The pertinent and timely examples illustrate how diverse groups have adapted the ideologies of tiny living to meet specific community needs. Overall, the exhibition illustrates the need for change and illuminates the possibilities of tiny living while imagining its future and beyond.