Mariëlle Videler returned to her studio home after a year-long residency in Colombia, a period devoted to the cultures of Colombia's indigenous peoples and to the ways knowledge has been — and continues to be — transferred within and through these cultures. There she was once again confronted with her own local and cultural history: with rituals compromised and spirituality that is kept outside of daily life.

This inner conflict became the inspiration for the installation, for which she poured 4,000 liters of soil into her studio home — the site that gave the work its title, Artist House. Visitors were welcomed by an exhibition attendant and asked to remove their shoes. Barefoot, they crossed a small, bridge-like staircase set into the doorway — rising just before the threshold, cresting at its highest point within the doorway itself, then descending on the other side, where their feet met the dark earth.