Dream Home Manifestation Guide
Created at The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency, Dream Home Manifestation Guide is an intricately illustrated zine that can be read in two ways. One side of the zine features prompts and instructions for how to manifest the home of your dreams. When folded the opposite way, the other side of the zine depicts the dream homes of non-human species like coyotes, worms, and spiders. It is part of a growing body of work that explores searching for a sense of home, especially in circumstances of demoviction, development, rent increase, and gentrification.
This project was sparked by my fascination with The New Home and Condo Guide, a magazine distributed in newspaper boxes across the sidewalks of the lower mainland which features condos for sale and advice for home buyers. I felt drawn to its bright yellow distribution boxes, which read “FREE- FIND YOUR NEXT HOME HERE.” I began to consider the extremely limited audience served by The New Home and Condo Guide, and became interested in creating an alternate publication more relevant for those of us who cannot afford to purchase a home. Dream Home Manifestation Guide has now been distributed in these very boxes alongside The New Home and Condo Guide, playfully subverting the intended use of these sites.
Hidden within Dream Home Manifestation Guide is a second zine, titled Dream Homes of Non-Humans, which only becomes apparent when the original zine is unfolded and then refolded inside out. This structure mirrors the often unnoticed impact of rapid development on non-human habitats.
Photos by Jordan Schinkel