They say you can never go home again, but Houston native Charles Huntley Nelson will be doing just that when he returns to his home city to install his work at Project Row Houses (PRH) in October. Charles was selected as one of five artists to participate in the next round of installation projects at the Houston locale that has become an important launching pad for emerging artists.
Charles will be installing his work "Why Not on TV," which reproduces a black, middle-class, American living room environment with all the trappings of sofa, entertainment center, and wall-mounted photos. Playing on the television however, are the decidedly untypical images of a Zulu robot come stridently back to earth set to the poetry of James T. Trotter.
This project will be Charles's first major exhibition in Houston, and what's more it takes place in the Third Ward, Charles's childhood home. Which turns up the pressure a little. But Charles assures us that this exhibition will be "all out," a necessary tactic for representing on the home front. Charles currently lives and works in Atlanta. PRH, meanwhile, is all about the interactive and the interdisciplinary, so Charles's installation is designed to be sat in, walked through, and added to. Visitors will have a way to add their own photos to the photo wall and shouldn't feel shy about plopping down on the sofa.
PRH artists install their works in renovated row houses in Houston's previously blighted Third Ward. Artists have about 500 square feet to play with and receive a $2500 honorarium for materials and stipend.
