The Pieterse Pfile: Bell Street, 2o11
by jwc 3o2
all photographs by Jessica Pieterse.
when i moved from 856 to 88o Somerset, i no longer had a yard to pile snow in. Jessica invited me to use her yard at 192 Bell Steet & we had at it, building the most complex & sprawling snow-warren yet (it eventually enveloped the entire backyard).
it consisted of the large main chamber that these photographs focus on, big enough for 8 people orso to stand up in, which was reached by climbing a snow staircase at the other side of the yard (at right). at its top, magic carpets were hung on a fence & one slid down a slide that curved around the rear corner of the yard to shoot you through a mousehole into the vestibule, a small room (3 people standing) with a further mousehole that led into the main chamber. a further mousehole led from there to a 2nd room under the stairs that never quite got finished when the spring melt began. another snow staircase parallelled the inside curve of the slide for getting out again. during interior work, a temporary door was cut that opened straight onto the driveway to make snow removal more efficient, sealed again at the end of each shift.
i failed to get any photographs of this construction but Jessica took random shots throughout & i recently came across a one-off book that she made for me that contained them. these are excerpts from that gift. thanks so much, Jess!
coworkers i remember: Jessica Pieterse, Sierra Prunner, James Puseljich, Kelsea Shore.
