The House

Sam Bundey

“She is good and she is beautiful.”

My House

I live in an unfinished house. Plaster ripped up gives way to dusty red bricks which people always lean on even after I warn them not to. In place of carpet or lacquered wood we have foam pads and fake grass. We have a toilet, with no door and no sink. The upstairs is nicer. We have carpet that smells like old people and dogs. We have painted walls and sinks and a shower. My parents always say that the renovations will start shortly; that we’re just waiting for council approval or we just need to find a builder, but they never happen. My house is the opposite of the Farnsworth House. 

The Context

The Farnsworth House was built in 1951 and is famous for her owner and commissioner Edith Farnsworth suing the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Edith sued because of the lack of function in the house. She said that it lacked the necessary necessities needed to live in it. 

Callum Morton is an artist famous for his sculptures, which often criticise and explore architecture. In 2001, Callum created a piece called Farnshaven, Illinois, a digital print that depicts the Farnsworth House if she were a 7-Eleven. The natural forest of Fox Creek which surrounds the property is sparse in Morton’s depiction—the night sky is bright as if the light of the 7-Eleven and the few street lamps are causing enough light pollution to drown what would be a beautiful starry sky. The parking lot tarmac is shiny and plastic as if slick with water, and it clearly reflects the Farnsworth House.

It's nostalgic—it feels like somewhere I’ve been and at the same time like a scene from a shitty indie horror game I watched on YouTube in 2015. It unsettles me and comforts me, and I want nothing more than to step into the canvas and explore this vignette. 

My Body

I live in an unfinished body. Wiry hair covers my arms, legs, chest, face and ass, and I want it all ripped out and sometimes the skin along with it as well. My hands and feet aren’t dainty, my rib cage is larger than it should be. I have a penis and balls and I wish I didn’t. My voice is deep and grumbly. I feel like an ogre; big and lumbering, hated by all. I dream about passing, about reshaping my body, but that is impossible. All I can do is hope that the medicine will help. Thin the hair, smooth the skin, give me a figure. But who knows. My body is the same as the Farnsworth House.

Edith

Edith Farnsworth was born in 1903. She was born 100 years before me. She was rich, she studied violin in Italy—this was in the 1920s, she was maybe 17. She spoke Italian, French, and a little bit of German. She became a doctor, specialising in nephrology, the study of the kidney. She became a private physician and a researcher. 

She was a very impressive woman. 

Sam

I was born in 2003. I was born 100 years after her. My dad works very hard, and makes a lot of money to provide for our family, because he loves us. When I was 17, I was bad at playing trumpet and had stopped taking piano lessons. I had quit French, because I hated it and I was years behind my classmates. I will not become a doctor, much less one specialising in kidneys, and I will not become a private physician or a researcher. 

I hope one day someone will write about me and they will say, ‘she was a woman’.

The Story of the House

The Farnsworth House was built in 1951 and after Edith Farnsworth failed to sue Mies she took to the public stage. She drove a big fuss about this house, the one she commissioned, the one she watched as she was built, the one she helped plan with Mies. She said many things. Edith said, ‘something should be said and done about architecture such as this, or there will be no future for architecture’. Mies said, ‘less is more’. She said, ‘we know that less is not more. It is simply less!’ Some said the two were intimate, and that Edith was heartbroken that Mies would leave her after the project was finished. Regardless, Edith regularly used the Farnsworth House for 20 years to host parties and weekend retreats. 

The Farnsworth House was built nearly 5 inches above the ground to prevent flooding, as it was built quite near the Fox River flood plain. The Farnsworth House flooded once under Edith’s care. Edith made additions to the house in her time. She added curtains and a bronze screen around the deck. After 20 years of regularly using the Farnsworth House, Edith sold her to a man named Peter Palumbo. I do not know if Palumbo is a good man or a bad man, but he is an alive man. Palumbo added air conditioning and heating, and he removed the bronze screen which Edith had added. The house flooded twice under Palumbo's care, once in 1996 and the next year in 1997. Palumbo was good to the Farnsworth House; he added only what he deemed necessary and took care of her. In 2001, Palumbo attempted to sell the Farnsworth House to the state of Illinois, but they pulled out in 2003. That year Palumbo sold the Farnsworth House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois. They have made no additions to the Farnsworth House, except for repairs made when it flooded in 2008, but she is now open to the public as a museum. 

The Rules

When I was a kid, I didn’t know how the world worked. I thought there were rules, rules that I had to follow to be a normal person. I thought that boys had to like girls, and girls had to like boys. I thought that school dances required a date. One day at school they announced a Halloween dance, and I believed I needed to find a date. I thought that was just how it was meant to be. Pressure mounted as existing couples stepped forward and said that they were going together. I had to choose someone, or I would fail. 

I ended up picking a girl I think her name was Lauren. I don’t remember much about her except that she was taller than me, and that she was best friends with a girl named Maddie. We were in PE and we were running laps to prepare for some charity run. I approached her as we ran and asked her if she would go to the dance with me. She said no and I accepted the answer. I remember distinctly, that I felt relief. I felt that I had done my part in attempting to find a date, and now I could go knowing I did what I was supposed to do. 

I told my friends the result, and by the time PE had ended the entire class knew—not that I particularly cared. Problems arose when a kid named Brody, a known class clown and part-time jerk, started a chant. ‘Say yes.’ Chaos ensued. The boys were harassing Lauren, the girls were trying to console me and, bafflingly, the teacher did nothing. Kids snuck handwritten letters saying that they were Lauren and that, actually, she did want to go on the dance. As I was leaving, Lauren approached me and I apologised for what happened. She accepted the apology and, surprisingly, she said she would dance with me at the school dance. I don’t know why she changed her mind, especially after the chaos of five minutes earlier, but when the day arrived, I dreaded the dance. I don’t remember much from that night, other than Lauren approaching me at some point to say it was time. We did our best estimation of slow dancing for maybe two minutes. Two minutes of horrible, awkward torture before she let me go. I spent the rest of the night hiding. 

The Story of the Moth

The Farnsworth House was completed in 1951. She was built in the air, held up by steel beams. Two white stone slabs, one about a foot higher than the other, make up the base of the structure. The lower slab is an empty landing, but the second holds the entire building. The centre of the building is blocked in; holding the bathrooms, piping, and other aesthetically displeasing mechanisms. On one side of this block is the kitchen, and on the other is a lounging area. In fact, much of the building is made up of lounging area, empty space taken up with tables and chairs of all sorts. There is a patio, screened in by Farnsworth to keep away bugs. At night bugs flock to the building, a beacon of light in the night. They are attracted to her presence, this strange white block which emits light.

A cocoon opens in the forest, and a grey moth emerges. It spends the day drying in the warm spring sun, laying on a green leaf, and having its first meal. In the evening it takes flight. Moths use the moon to navigate, this is a scientific fact. As night approaches, the moth sees a bright light in a clearing and it is compelled to approach. Moths are attracted to light, this is a scientific fact. The moth finally arrives at its destination, this ethereal bright structure. It must get closer, but it is blocked by an invisible barrier. Thousands of moths, flies, mosquitoes and other flying bugs are also struggling against this strange invisible barrier. The moth wants to get closer, but it can't. It has no choice but to spend the rest of the night attempting to force its way in. It's the moth's nature to want to land on the moon, but it cannot. It does not even know that this moon is a lie. 

Transformation

She will one day change, because she wants to. No matter who accepts her and who doesn’t, no matter who says she is not a wholesome person. She will let the moth in, let it land on the moon and take it in and be where it was meant to be. She will change her name to Farnshaven. She will not need to speak French or Italian or any amount of German because she will speak to her friends. She will not become a surgeon of nephrology or anything, because blood makes her queasy and she would rather make people feel better with a bad story or a bad joke or by being pretty dumb because that is what she is good at. She will illuminate the night sky any way she wants—with street lamps and vivid neon green and orange or with bright, ever-present moonlike light. She will be flooded many times, despite the people who created her putting so many measures in place to protect her. She will keep living and living and living, until she is forgotten and reclaimed by the nature she was always meant to live amongst. Her tall 7-Eleven sign will crumble and cover in vine, her electric heating will lay cold and quiet and her air conditioning will no longer condition anything. 

But she was loved, all across the world even when she was caught in a national controversy, even when she was flooded, even when the state of Illinois decided she was not worth purchasing. 

She is good and she is beautiful. One day she will be good and she will be beautiful.