British artist turns threatened clifftop house into statement

Dec 31, 2009, 11:58 GMT

London - A British art lecturer who bought a perilously-perched clifftop house is hoping to document its threatened collapse into the sea as an art work, it was reported Thursday.

Kane Cunningham, a lecturer and landscape painter, bought the house at Knipe Point, near Scarborough on the north-west North Sea coast of Britain, for a mere 3,000 pounds (4,800 dollars) during the recent property crash.

Its real value of an estimated 150,000 pounds had been dramatically reduced by its location a few metres from the edge of an ongoing landslip, the Press Association reported.

Cunningham, 48, plans to install cameras in the rooms and film the expected crash. But before that happens, he will fill the house with artwork, including sculptures, using some of its interior furnishings.

'I've bought a house worth 150,000 pounds for just 3,000 pounds. I like that idea and thought I could develop it and it would make a good piece of artwork,' said Cunningham.

He had noticed some 'large cracks' recently, said Cunningham, who has invited local people to send in letters he will pin on walls as part of the artwork.

'The installation is called Last Post, as its address won't exist one day. It's a rare opportunity to participate in an original and unique work of art,' he said.