Baking Soda
Commissioned Installation, The Ion District, Houston, Texas, 2024
At the Ion Building in Houston, Hillerbrand+Magsamen present an installation that explores the transformative beauty and potential inherent in the everyday. "Baking Soda" examines the poetic interplay between domestic life and creative experimentation, celebrating the magic found in ordinary objects and materials sourced directly from their own home. Drawing inspiration from home science experiments, the artists use toys, measuring cups, insulation foam, lights, and kitchen utensils as building blocks for a playful yet profound investigation into the unseen connections between the mundane and the extraordinary.
Using their house as a laboratory for exploration, the artists engage with the materials and objects of daily life, transforming them into an evolving narrative of discovery. AI is occasionally employed as a creative tool in this process, extending the experimentation into the digital realm. This installation incorporates objects, photographs, and video, inviting viewers to pause and reconsider the materials that shape their lives. Through shifts in scale, context, and medium, "Baking Soda" transforms kitchen staples into a meditation on the larger journey of life, revealing the ways we construct meaning from everyday transitions.
The Ion District, Ion Innovation District, or Rice Innovation District, is a technology park and innovation district in Midtown Houston which was established as a joint initiative between Rice University and the City of Houston. It has also been called the South Main Innovation District.
