Westward Ho! Brooklyn's Mark Reigelman Stakes a Tiny Claim in California

Mark Reigelman is an artist who likes to call attention to space, though not "outer space," more like our immediate space. Known both for cloaking a room in a dizzying display of black and white stripes to call our attention to architectural lines, as well as transforming stately buildings with huge, white weather balloons. Now Reigelman has declared his own manifest destiny, a pledge to "intrepidly claim and occupy space, regardless of hazard, existing occupants, inconvenience, daunting odds or common sense. Manifest Destiny! is single-minded in its objective: move West, claim territory, build a home." 

The Brooklyn-based artist went as far West as San Francisco, where he teamed up with local architect Jenny Chapman and engineer Paul Endres to build and install a small house on the side of The Hotel des Arts. A solar panel mounted to the roof powers lights inside (see image below) so you know when someone is home and strangers won't--ya know--rob the place. 

Using a 19th-century architectural style and vintage building materials, the structure is both homage to the romantic spirit of the Western Myth and a commentary on the arrogance of Westward expansion.

Interested in making a man-sized birdhouse of your own? Check out our woodworking and welding classes.

Manifest Destiny! will be up until October 2012.

-- Perrin Drumm