By Kendall George, February 19, 2013

Jason Hanasik, film still from new installation, We always thought the walls would protect us, but suddenly realized they were as weak as our frames. Image via the SFAC.

Moving to a new home is a projection of a new life. Unless your move is a significant downgrade, it’s filled with dreams and projections about who you will be once you’re sleeping there. It’s the easiest deus ex machina for difficult problems, so much so that moving to start again has become a cliché. Designing and building your own house is the greatest spell you can cast to manifest your ideal self.

Jason Hanasik. Jennifer from the series Family Matters. Image via Jason Hanasik.

In Jason Hanasik’s instillation “We always thought the walls would protect us, but suddenly realized they were as weak as our frames” at the San Francisco Art’s Commission’s main gallery, three movies of his familial home are played on TVs sitting on the concrete floor and projected on a sheet of heavy plastic in a wood-frame room. A home video of Jason and his sister Jennifer—Jason’s collaborator via video and photographs, who passed away in 2010—touring their wood frame house in progress plays on one TV; they are maybe seven and four years old, and they are so excited. On a second TV Jason filmed 360-degree views of the houses’ rooms after foreclosure had begun; Jennifer was already gone. Woods surrounding the house are projected on a square of construction-grade plastic sheeting.

Jason Hanasik. Jeff from the series Family Matters. Image via Jason Hanasik.

After the Great Recession and America’s housing bubble burst, middle-class displacement became common, though it has been infrequently explored in the arts. Hanasik’s videos in a bare wood-frame are for reflecting on the expectations of a home and their denouement.

“Conversation 6: Jason Hanasik and Berndnaut Smilde” is on view at the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery through April 27, 2013.