The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street

Exhibition. 6 works on view at ///circle.looked.drain, 5816 BELMAR ST, Kingsessing. The wall is circular: walking in either direction returns to the title wall. Use Tab to move between works and Enter to read a work’s wall label. Arrow keys move along the wall.

Six works at a single point in the city, the first acquired in September 2025 and the most recent in February 2026. One commissioner: Police Department. The museum did not solicit any of them.

The works are exhibited in order of acquisition. Visitors will notice that the subject does not change; the museum invites them to consider what does.

1. The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street, No. 3 — Automotive, dark lacquer, exposed rim, roadside exposure. Accession 18127004. Acquired September 29, 2025. 353 days on view. Low sun strikes the sedan along its full length, and the dark lacquer holds the light as a single unbroken sheen from the rear quarter to the trunk lid, interrupted only by the dust settled across the rear glass. The empty plate recess and the bare front rim establish the two points at which the body has come uncoupled from its former use, while the weeds along the fence have grown to the height of the rocker panel. Read against the earlier works from this holding, the posture is unchanged and the surrounding vegetation is not; the museum preserves the work for the steadiness of that contrast.
2. The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street, No. 4 — Sedan, four-door, stationary, unregistered. Accession 18137253. Acquired September 30, 2025. 352 days on view. The work's black lacquer is the most reflective surface in the frame, returning a flat sheet of overcast light across the trunk lid and holding the pale shape of the wrapped mattress behind it in the rear glass. The recess where a plate would sit is empty and clean, and the alloy wheels remain unmarked by the grit that has collected along the gutter beneath them. Read against the earlier works in this series, the piece is distinguished by its polish: nothing in its condition suggests rest, only the angle at which it meets the curb. The museum preserves it as the series' most composed member, a vehicle that retains every appearance of imminent use.
3. The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street, No. 5 — Sedan, four-door, high-gloss finish, close-quarters installation. Accession 18270867. Acquired October 7, 2025. 345 days on view. The work presents an unusually reflective surface for the collection: the trunk lid and roof hold a clean sheet of overcast light, and the chrome strip beneath the badge remains bright. Two small fixing holes on the rear face, unoccupied, are the composition's quietest passage, and they do more to establish the piece than any surface wear would. Fitted tightly between the vehicles fore and aft, it reads less as an object set down than as one that has been built into the row. The museum preserves it as the most polished member of its series.
4. The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street, No. 6 — Sedan, four-door, high-gloss finish, vacant plate recess. Accession 18439332. Acquired October 15, 2025. 337 days on view. The work's black lacquer is uncommonly intact, carrying a high gloss across the trunk lid and rear quarter panel that returns a pale band of overcast sky along the shoulder line; the chrome strip below the trunk badge remains bright. The rear plate recess is empty, and the body sits level and square on inflated tyres, drawn nearer to the bumper of the adjacent vehicle than to the kerb. Behind it the embankment has filled with vegetation to the base of the painted wall, where a plastic-sheathed mattress and refuse sacks have settled against the fence. Among the works of this series the museum regards it as the most reflective surface, the only entry in which the surrounding scene appears within the work itself.
5. The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street, No. 7 — Sedan, plowed snow, road salt, low sun. Accession 19524004. Acquired February 7, 2026. 222 days on view. The composition is strictly frontal: the sedan's rear presents itself as a single dark red plane, symmetrical to the millimeter, with the recessed plate panel empty save for two bolt holes and a wash of dried salt. Banked snow has been plowed up against both flanks and molded to the body's lower edge, so that the work now sits within its setting rather than upon it. Low sun entering from the far end of the block flattens the paint toward brown and raises a cold highlight along the trunk lip. Within this series the museum regards No. 7 as the most formally composed view, the one in which the surrounding material has closed around the work most completely.
6. The Winter Tenancy, Belmar Street, No. 8 — Automotive, maroon lacquer, plowed snow, low winter sun. Accession 19532139. Acquired February 11, 2026. 218 days on view. The work sits low and square to the viewer, its maroon lacquer still holding a shallow gloss while the blank recess at the center of the trunk lid has begun to weep small rust blooms downward in fine vertical stains. Plowed snow has been pushed up against the right rear tire and under the bumper, forming a grey-white ridge that follows the body's contour and fixes the work in place as firmly as any fastening. Low sun enters from behind the roofline and flattens the sedan into silhouette while leaving the tail lamps and exhaust tips faintly lit. Among the works gathered at this location, this one is distinguished by the degree to which the surrounding snow has taken the shape of the object.

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