To the Owner (of multiple properties)

2025—ongoing

1000 x A1 letters hand signed and folded into 1000 x A4 envelopes / offset print on high bulk paper / hand delivered to letterboxes in the wealthiest streets in the wealthiest suburbs of Australia.

To the Owner (of multiple properties),

This might seem like an absurd proposition, but in many ways it is the most realistic path to stable housing that lies before me.

I am an artist and writer. I am seeking a patron to provide me with a house to live in free of charge for a decade.

There are approximately one million empty houses in Australia, representing about 10.1% of the nation’s private dwellings, according to 2021 Census data.

Do you own one? I will turn your empty house into a home.

You will in turn play a central role in an evolving art work of profound social importance, while supporting an artist’s career.

All the work I produce over the course of that decade long lease will be credited:

This work has been supported by (insert your name here).

I look forward to discussing this possibility with you.

Respectfully,

Alana Hunt

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One million houses stand empty in Australia, despite the universal need for secure tenure and an adequate standard of living. Alana recently sat down at her desk to write a letter seeking a patron, who would ideally be an owner of multiple spare houses offering a rent-free lease for ten years in return for credit in all Alana’s work. “This might seem like an absurd proposition, but in many ways it is the most realistic path to stable housing that lies before me,” wrote Alana, balancing satire and seriousness. She has printed 1000 A1 copies of this letter, packaged them into envelopes and stamped the front with the words “To the Owner (of multiple properties)” in red ink. She plans on letter-dropping them to the most expensive postcodes in Sydney and Perth, and wherever else the work may lead.

Such are the enduring inequalities for a system that sees shelter as an asset.

Got Any Land?! by Lauren Carroll Harris

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To the Owner (of multiple properties) premiered in the solo exhibition A Deceptively Simple Need at the Perth Instititute of Contemporary Art, supported by the Copyright Agency’s Partnerships Commission.