The red steps in Home/Portal are associated with the living conditions originating from chattel slavery, indentureship and workers’ housing in rural and urban settlements in the Caribbean. With this object, and subsequent series of actions, the artist instigates an experience and moment for discourse. Caribbean populations are shaped predominantly by people who were conscripted into the Western Global industrial complex—the plantation system. The steps refer to a Stargate-like portal, investigating the anxiety of departures and arrivals between and from the islands in the Caribbean. 

Staircases are often all that is left from houses, so placing them in empty lots, in areas where people from the region settle, seeks to trouble our sense of where we are. With Cozier’s instructions, anyone can make this object or co-opt one that they find in their neighborhood. By (re-)locating this familiar object, Cozier invites viewers to question its appearance and significance to our respective journeys.

Haishu Chen (b. 1986 in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China) is a visual artist working and living in Berlin, Germany. Using not only photography but also other media such as text, video, installation, performance, film and photo books, the artistic works of Chen focus on the critical analysis of conditions of existence, social perception and collective memory in our modern society.