Made:       2022

Shown:     Martian House, M-Shed Museum, Bristol. Sept 2022

Building a Martian House is by artists Ella Good and Nicki Kent in collaboration with Hugh Broughton Architects and Pearce+.

Building a Martian House is a public art project that has made a prototype of a real Martian house. The project has brought together space scientists, architects, engineers, designers, and the public to explore how we live today and stimulate visions for new ways of living here on Earth and on Mars.

As part of 'Building a Martian House', I joined a volunteer group of 25 people that were tasked to think about and make domestic objects responding to the long term living on Mars. We imagined how a community would form and how people might live day to day on the red planet. 

I thought about craft skills and the utilising of local materials. Salt and mineral deposits have been theorised to exist within the subsurface of Mars. Rock Salt deposits would be likely, giving me the idea to utilise this material to carve a series of functional objects that would both flavour meals, and be beautiful objects. Using Pink Himalayan Rock salt as a substitute to Mars' deposits I hand carved a shallow bowl and a cup.

​

I theorised that salt carving would become a craft on Mars, much like wood carving is on Earth. More elaborate forms would be developed though generational learning and mastering of this skill set.