From The Widow's Walk to security. An interpretation on the masques of John Hejduk

Abstract

One of John Hejduk's first masques, New England Masque, refers to the widow's walk, a tower that protrudes from the roof of some houses in New England, on the East Coast of the United States. The analysis of these houses involves directly relating the interior space of these pieces with the wives of sailors who hunted whales in the 19th century. The women used these viewpoints to check if their husbands came down from the boats after months at sea. John Hejduk's comment on this piece, located in some homes on Long Island, involves linking the widow's walk with three built structures-of the 67 proposals-for Victims. The analysis proposes studying the works Painter-Studio A, Musician-Studio B and Security. The study is presented according to the space where they are located and according to how they are linked to the meaning that the subject has defined in each of the proposals. The projects that John Hedjuk will carry out during the last years of the 20th century, his masques, are architectures linked to an inhabitant. The link between the object and the subject that establishes each piece is a way of studying the masques proposed by its author. The research article tries to propose an interpretation about the assumption of sensitive relationships according to its inhabitants. The three mentioned structures will be the object of an analysis of the constructions themselves and also of how the subject is able to transform the space. © 2018 Universidad de Sevilla. All Rights Reserved.