TONY HORNECKER: I don’t really know how it ended up like this. I don’t really know.
There wasn’t any real intention.
TONY HORNECKER: Well, the experience of arriving here begins from Kingsland road, really. And
you kind of, come down this dark cobbled street and then you, kind of, crawl in to this sort
of space which doesn’t look terribly interesting from the outside. And then all of a sudden
you are overwhelmed with things and lights and music and, and atmosphere. It’s still
to this day I don’t think anyone can fail to not be moved by this space.
TONY HORNECKER: I am Tony Hornecker; I am an artist and a set designer. Well, it started
out as an attempt to build a sort of New York style loft apartment when I first moved in
here 15 years ago. It was a big, dirty blank space. I remember walking down here
one October evening and seeing this roller-shutter door half, half kind of pulled down and peering
underneath and seeing this big space. And everyone thought I was completely mad. I spent
the first 6 weeks kind of, like washing out of a bucket and trying to turn it in to something
that was vaguely like a home. Slowly over the years it’s just evolved from different
spaces and workspaces. I have had exhibitions here. It has a pop-up restaurant occasionally.
TONY HORNECKER: This is my little sound system. Yeah, so when I have events here and things
like that and parties and things, we have got our little sound system going and yeah,
it’s a bit, bit rickety but it works. This is the submarine which is part of a set that
I built for another project called ‘Gender Pacific,’ and then it ended up coming back
and then I kind of, built the spare room here. So it’s all kind of, like layered and you
have got like little loose portholes and there’s fishes behind.
TONY HORNECKER: Yes, so it’s quite cosy up here. You have got your view. You can, kind
of, like peer out and see the rest of the house, which is quite nice.
TONY HORNECKER: There’s a lot of my childhood here. There’s a lot of things from my own
family that my mum sort of given me. A lot of things from different relationships, a
lot of things form different exhibitions. From working as a set designer, from like,
Kylie Minogue’s glitter balls to all kinds of, you know, layers and layers and layers of objects.
TONY HORNECKER: Got my lovely little couch, I spend a lot of time on.
TONY HORNECKER: Yeah, this is my little dining area. I have my dinner here.
TONY HORNECKER: Here is the kitchen, pretty small but we manage.
TONY HORNECKER: It’s hard to keep clean. I clean by moving like, moving things. I mean
to go around cleaning, there’s bits that I clean. There’s bits that get a little
bit of dusting. It’s, I mean it’s clean and tidy.
TONY HORNECKER: This is my little doll’s house where I sleep everyday. So you kind
of, crawl up a stair of chairs, the mysterious stair of chairs. And then you crawl in and
there’s a little bedroom at the back that has got my four poster bed and then my collection
of dolls houses, which was scattered all over the house until recently and I didn’t realise
I had quite so many.
TONY HORNECKER: Come on in this is the bedroom. It’s my four-poster. I am very proud of,
made out of old chair legs. This is my relax space, yeah.
TONY HORNECKER: Hanging out with my mates.
TONY HORNECKER: So this is the toilet, which sits inside an old wardrobe. Table for one,
toothbrush for one. Tony is single at the moment. So there you go.
Sometimes there’s 2, occasionally 3.
TONY HORNECKER: It’s a project that has been going on for 15 years and it doesn’t really
end. I mean I never pay more than like, a fiver for anything really.
So it is worth nothing, but everything.