For Alterspace's fourth and final self-curated show at 2430 N. Washtenaw, we have invited two artists whose connection to the space itself is immutably interwoven into their personal relationship, as well as their work. Former tenants Peter Hoffman and Loo Bain, have moved back into the space where they once lived and worked in order to re-interpret what was once their domestic space. The sculptural installations, collectively titled Better Living, are both dryly humorous conversations with the space and their histories within.

Loo Bain adds to the distinguishing architectural element of Alterspace, the fireplace. By recreating scale replicas of two similarly non-functional fireplaces, both from her current and previous apartments, she treats the spaces with a sensitive proclivity toward her own physical awareness of them. The superimposition of the forms allows for a typological comparison between a set of architectural artifacts whose histories also intersect. With the actual stone fireplace acting as the fulcrum, the ghost-fireplaces (sculpted completely out of styrofoam) rationally draw the connections to her past and future, placing us in the time when she occupied the space.

Peter Hoffman brings to the space a gesture of personal history and a larger mythology through the use of a simple iconic form, the pyramid. Inviting his brother and engineer John Hoffman to collaborate on the project, the two create a room-sized pyramid as a grand solution to modern home decoration. With this powerfully symbollic form, Peter recalls his own history by constructing an important monument within a completely temporary and domestic installation. Reflective of his working methods as a preparator, the tools he employs as well as the method of construction and the chosen materials (wood, drywall, joint compound and paint) signals a desire to articulate his own history within his former home.