Arriving at the firehouse-turned-studio where sculptor and architect Dee Briggs centers her art practice, it’s hard to ignore the feeling that you’ve stumbled upon a well-kept secret. Located in Wilkinsburg, a small town just outside of Pittsburgh that’s become better known in recent years for its economic decline rather than its prosperous history, the building is partially obscured from public view by an abandoned house that towers over nearby Swissvale Avenue. In fact, nearly every street within walking distance of Briggs’s studio features either a vacant lot or an abandoned home, nature quietly reclaiming the open spaces and derelict structures in a tangle of thistles and ivy. The reality outside her front door, however, is not lost on Briggs. Instead it’s an issue that occupies her thoughts and informs her work.
Artist Josh Hogan and architect Adam Lackett in May 2014, transforming the abandoned house next door to Briggs’s studio into the House of Gold. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Last year Briggs put her words into action with the House of Gold project, which found the artist purchasing the vacant house next door to her studio and, with help from friends, painting it gold to act as a beacon in the distressed neighborhood.
Briggs removing trash from the House of Gold. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
After telling the story of the house and its inhabitants through its website, Briggs originally planned to demolish the structure and create a green space. As the project has evolved, however, so too has the plan. Briggs is currently raising money with a Kickstarter campaign to fund a “gentle demolition” of the house, with the long-range goal of building a neighborhood coffee shop on the site.
A sculpture for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, shown during the fabrication process. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Briggs’s commitment to the neighborhood where she lives and works—and to Pittsburgh as a whole—is long term, she explains. In 2003, she returned to the city after nearly three decades living in New York. Born in Burgettstown and raised in northern West Virginia, Briggs has long considered the Pittsburgh region her home. She solidified her roots in 2009, however, after purchasing the former firehouse and converting it to a studio.
Briggs’s work falls into two categories. There is the formal/spatial sculptural work, such as her ring and plate pieces installed in the homes of private collectors as well as public spaces like downtown Pittsburgh and soon Foley Square in New York City. And then there are the social/political pieces, like House of Gold and Art You Can Get Into…if you have $12, which was installed at the Mattress Factory in 2012.
Sculpture, commissioned by a private collector, in the process of being built. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
“The formal/spatial work is based in my fascination with various operations of symmetry,” says Briggs. “The social/political come from a sense of responsibility to say something about situations in need of attention.” Finding a viable balance between the two, both creatively and economically, is often the greatest challenge.
“I have a sort of Robin Hood art practice,” says Briggs, smiling. Which is to say, the well-paying private commissions financially support the socially minded projects that she pursues.
Projects of that nature require support, she admits, whether from a private collector or institution. In Briggs’s experience, however, funding is often a secondary concern to the work itself.
Briggs’s office in a Wilkinsburg firehouse that she converted to a studio for her art practice back in 2009. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Fabrication drawings for Briggs’s Foley Square project, a public sculpture commission that will be installed in 2015. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Private commission in progress at Wheaton and Sons Iron Works in Braddock, PA. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
One of Briggs’s sculptures on its way home to Wilkinsburg (via the Squirrel Hill Tunnels) after being exhibited at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in 2012. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Sculpture installation on Long Island, 2012. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Briggs’s project for the Warhol Factory Direct exhibition in progress at TAKTL Ultra High Performance Concrete in Shaler, PA. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Briggs’s project for the Warhol Factory Direct exhibition in progress at her Wilkinsburg studio. Photograph courtesy of Dee Briggs Studio.
Studio Visit is an ongoing series that offers a candid look at the workspaces and art practices of the artists who live and work in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.