Home-Made Europe

In this second volume of home-made artifacts, Russian artist Vladimir Arkhipov has travelled across Europe to further his collection. The objects he has found are made by everyday people inspired to create something themselves, rather than buying manufactured goods. His archive includes hundreds of objects created with idiosyncratic functional qualities: an Austrian ski-bob made using an old bicycle frame, and a device from Germany that enables a musician to play three brass tubas at once. Featuring 230 individual artifacts from Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Wales, accompanied by a photograph of the creator, their story of how the object came about, its function and the materials used to create it. The book is an essential companion to the first volume by the same author, expanding its theme. Here the objects are more recent, suggesting that the home-made phenomenon transcends simple necessity. Many have been made in pursuit of a hobby, or because the maker had the time and inclination to construct something personal. But with others (in Albania for example) the objects feel like they might be more vital to the maker’s livelihood.