Hot House is an ongoing project that started in 2016. Hot House visualizes a fantastical and speculative public institution, the botanical bathhouse, by examining and reforming video footage of coldly real and extant structures: the four remaining public bathhouses in Chicago, the Garfield Park Conservatory, and the variegated infrastructure of the Enduring City. In addition, the project’s drawings and sculptures reflect upon these public work utopias. In Chicago, the forever striving ‘Global City’, luxury saunas and wellness spaces are becoming increasingly popular, with access hinging on a rarefied socio-economic status. ​Hot House​ plans an opposing vision, based on historical public works that provided free or inexpensive services through humble design and general provision. ​Hot House contemplates places of ‘encounter’, places where we see each other in intimate settings such as the restroom or the public pool. The conservatory element of ​this project considers how nature might take more precedence in daily life. The pieces are modular and visitors are encouraged to move and re-design the layout. In order to find plants that grow best in and around the sculptures, Diddie has been working with Sussanah Donne, an ecopsychologist and botanical artist,. ​

*Hot House​ was partially funded by DCASE and a printed book of drawings accompanies these pieces and is free to the public. If you would like a copy of this book please email me : megan.diddie@gmail.com