When something’s stable, dependable, and strong, we might say it’s “like a rock.” Similarly, when things become difficult and challenges feel immovable, we might find ourselves “between a rock and a hard place.” These idioms suggest that perhaps especially when we face challenges, we find ways to beat the odds. And Simon Laveuve’s idiosyncratic, post-apocalyptic dwellings detail just that. The artist’s 1/35-scale miniature domiciles perch atop stilts and boulders. Laveuve pairs tiny chairs, boxes of produce, fishing gear, and other daily essentials with objects that appear to have been scrounged from who-knows-where and repurposed into useful tools and furniture. While figures never occupy the scenes, evidence of their activities and lifestyle intimates their presence, as if the residents have simply slipped out to run a quick errand.

If you’re in Paris later this fall, see these works in person in the artist’s solo exhibition, Ancré dans la roche (Anchored in Rock). The title nods to Laveuve’s thematic throughline of dwellings in unexpected and often precarious places, where the anonymous builders make do with what’s available—a fitting metaphor for life amid contemporary political and economic turbulence. The work “speaks to this fundamental need: finding a place to hold on,” the artist tells Colossal. “And, from that point of anchorage, to live.”

Ancré dans la roche opens on November 12 and continues through December 22 at Loo & Lou Gallery, which will also present Laveuve’s work during Luxembourg Art Week from November 20 to 22. Check out the artist’s Instagram for updates.