the house as a conduit for superstitious beliefs
things powers time
ANGELA SILVER
A table holding construction tools quickly became an ad hoc exhibition space of the numerous superstitious artifacts we found while renovating our 1880s Seaview farmhouse. The items laid out on the table included a woman’s brown leather shoe next to a child’s shoe, a white corset rusted at its ribbing, a piece of cloth with rudimentary stitching, twine, a seashell, a toddler’s jumper with its pocket detached. An envelope with the house’s address, a series of broken glass dishes and a glass bottle marked Ozone is Life and, on the other side, The Ozone Co. of Toronto. Research online revealed the 1800-century Ozone Company produced a sulfuric drink claiming to cure ailments ranging from eczema to inflamed ovaries. We were euphoric the day we discovered the house’s structural mortise and tenon connections joined as in a ship, without nails. Pencilled numbers marking its assembly on the ceiling joists offered a poetic connection to its builders. Before finding the protective items, I lamented the gutting of the ground floor. Any personal portrait of its previous inhabitants seemed elusive despite removing layers of wallpaper, lath and horsehair plaster, walls, seven stacked layers of flooring, and three strata of ceilings. A sense of the former occupants could not be gleaned from a few white glass buttons, pennies, a Queen Victoria coin and a handwritten list of phone numbers on a layer of wallpaper.
all images © Angela Silver
4 on site review 45: houses + housing
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