Final Exam

Kris Karpinia
Professors Chambliss & Simmons
RPG 303: The Art & Diversity of Place
3rd May 2012

Final Exam: The Importance of Consumption in Space & Place of the Home

          With the discovery of electricity and the Industrial Revolution, the United States became fixated on consumption.  All forms of media are utilized not only to broadcast shows or news, but serve as a medium for commercials and advertisements to reach millions of new potential customers. The United States, being a capitalist economy, offers the ‘American Dream’ as a lifestyle one can strives for. “With extensive research about the most prevalent domestic fantasies, builders tried to provide what the majority of surveyed families wanted” (Wright, 1981) The 'dream' can only be obtained through the constant behavior of a consuming. “Herbert Hoover...served as president of Better Homes...designed to boost home ownership and consumption” (Hayden, 1984) This example is how the country adopted consumerism as both a lifestyle and hobby.

          In class we’ve come to adopt “...the single family home was one of the defining symbols of ‘the American way of life” (Rome, 2001). We learned that through social pressures, a dynamic in the household has shifted. “A man’s house is his art - at least a house is the nearest to art that most men will ever come” (Defenbacher, 1947) This new luxury of filling a living space with items to customize it to fit the owners personality and individuality is the foundation of the American Dream. “Since the psychological lack driving consumption cannot be forever satisfied, it guarantees the perpetual repetition of the shopping ritual” (Oswald, 1996). It seems that we've started a cycle that is endless; destined for disaster.

           Rachel Whiteread and Andrea Zittel bring the often unnoticed ‘negative space’ into perspective. Their careful observation of detail is shown through often small visual cues. With the “Consumer culture primarily is a visual culture” (Oswald, 1996) it can be argued these two artists show how unoccupied spaces are enhanced when visually portrayed. Both artists in their artwork add a feeling of place when creating them. This feeling draws in the viewer and connects with each on a personal level.

  

(Rachel Whiteread, House - 1993)

          Her work, Rachel Whiteread, is bringing to life what is often unnoticed space. She looks at the connection of whats visible and invisible. Its as if she created a entire new void; sculptural inversion. Whiteread literally depicts this through filling objects with a substance eventually forming a solid cast. This newly formed void generates a inefficient connotation to the space filled. The art piece above, "House" is a concrete cast of the inside of an entire Victorian terraced house.

(Rachel Whiteread, One Hundred Spaces - 1997)

           Whiteread's connection to consumerism in the home is displayed here in the art piece above, "One Hundred Spaces". These one hundred resin casts of the space beneath chairs shows the diversity and abundance of this void in the household. “She allows spectacle to carry the work rather than creating a piece that uses the space in an interesting way that integrates with and supports the concept and materials she has chosen for the installation.” (Gibson, 2005) The different colors of the casts add a visual cue to show not only the variety, but style of each individual.

(Andrea Zittel, A-Z Homestead Unit From A-Z West - 2004)

           Andrea Zittel is an artist that conveys her minimalist lifestyle into small compact living spaces she calls "Living Units". She drastically reduces the size of a house to a small, compartment-like space in which all the necessities of a house are located, but confined and condensed. Her approach to redefine what is considered a living space is an active approach and solution to the growing consumption problem our country faces today. She takes the themes of compactness, adaptability and transportability and literally conforms a house to fit this mold.

(Andrea Zittel, A-Z Wagon Station - )

          

          This piece by Zittel is showing how her work can reflect a positive and independent attitude towards traveling. Her new project site in the California desert has had a huge impact on the work she has been developing. Her work erases the lines between art and life and allows the user or viewer to become part of a visually appeasing life changing experiment.  Her unique design principles have allowed her to remodel living structures into places of not only art, but functionality and simplicity.

 

 

 

Citations:

Daniel S. Defenbacher, ‘A Man’s House is his Art’, Everyday Art Quarterly, no. 5, 1947

 

Gibson, Todd. "From the Floor." : Spectacle, But Not Much Else, in the Turbine Hall. 27 Dec. 2005. 03 May 2012 <http://fromthefloor.blogspot.com/2005/12/spectacle-but-not-much-else-in-turbine.html>

Griffith Winton, A. "'A Man's House Is His Art': The Walker Art Center's Idea House Project and the Marketing of Domestic Design 1941-1947." Journal of Design History 17.4 (2004): 377-96. Print.

Oswald, Laura. "The Place and Space of Consumption in a Material World." Design Issues 12.1 (1996): 42-62. JSTOR. Web. 3 May 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511745?seq=1>.

Rome, Adam Ward. The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. New York: Pantheon, 1981. Print.


(A-Z Wagon Station Customized By Chris James)
http://zittel.org/works_horizontal.php?a_id=150&tag=%20shelter

(A-Z Homestead Unit From A-Z West with Raugh Furniture, 2004)
http://zittel.org/works_horizontal.php?a_id=102&tag=shelter

(Untitled (One Hundred Spaces) 1995 Resin (100 units) Dimensions variable)
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/aipe/rachel_whiteread.htm

(Rachel Whiteread, House, 1993)
http://thegreatexposition.com/?p=1859