Chad Wright
Designer Chad Wright of California has staked his claim against the suburbs. Wright has created a series of fleeting installations he calls “Master Plan,” in which he uses a sand castle-like mold to build suburban-style houses on the beach and then takes photographs as the incoming tide washes them away. Suburban homes are known for their cheap, shoddy construction and Wright merges that idea with the sense of impermanence we always get from the relentless, erosive action of the waves. But there’s a more pointed feeling in his work, too, of giving the bland, hubristic suburbs what they deserve. Wright builds his sand homes the way a captive might be staked to the beach to drown as the tide comes in.