Shelter Nr. 365, 2019

Shelter No. 365 (2019) is a work that is part of the collaborative project Ineligible. Nolle has taken artifacts from an excavation site in San Francisco, USA and combined them with artifacts from the present to recreate a temporary home built by an unhoused individual.

Using materials discarded in the past and in the present highlights San Francisco’s continued transition as it keeps building and rebuilding, reshaping itself as its needs and wants evolve, displacing certain residents in favor of others. Long ago, before the advent of agriculture, all humans lived in easily reconstructed shelters, as nomads constantly on the move after resources that wouldn’t sit still. Now, the disenfranchised, unhoused people living on the move within a world of walls and rules continue this tradition. 

Using excavated items which are, themselves, being displaced to make way for the future, this sculpture helps to tie the larger project to the past. Using discarded materials from the present indicates the scarcity facing people on the fringes of a very wealthy, modern San Francisco.

This work evolved in collaboration with “Ineligible” – Art/Archeology, Creative (un)makings – a project by San Francisco State University, 2019/2020 and Santo Tirso Museum of International Sculpture.