Sometimes you discover art so unbelievably mad, it’s brilliant.
And Richard Greaves falls into this category.
Part of the Alternative Guide to the Universe exhibition at Hayward Gallery (sadly only individual artists impress me rather than the exhibition as a whole), Greaves’ work has to be seen to be believed. But that would require a trip to Beauce, Quebec where he built over twenty of these structures on a plot of land that he and some friends purchased in the 1990’s.
So for now we’ll have to make do with some black and white images by Mario del Curto.
What makes Greaves special is that he takes dilapidated and abandoned structures apart, and puts them back together using twine and found material. Made in a unique Greaves’ style, these are structures that you can actually walk into and move around in. But I’d be a bit wary about doing this.
As lopsided as lopsided can get, these structures impress on me the fact that there is no box to stay within, other than the ones we make for ourselves. Even without following norms, there is a harmony to be found that can be uniquely yours. And looks like Greaves has found it.
Alternative Guide to the Universe
Hayward Gallery
Till 26 August 2013
beanstories 
These ARE brilliant.
my mom was friends with him so i knew him personally as a child. i used to play in the buildings until age 4 when i moved to ontaio. then i only got to go back for visits. the buildings were actually quite stable. last time i was there tho he had sold the land and the buyer considered it all junk and i was told that he was going to tear it all down. that was probably about 3 or 4 years ago. my favorite house was the one you call The House with Windows…. la maison de fenêtre. there were 2 stories inside and you could also go on the roof.
Hi Kaytlin, that’s amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this. I completely and absolutely love his work!