22 Nov 2006 – 06 Jan 2007
For her third show at Sadie Coles HQ, Andrea Zittel has made a new body of work highlighting the connection between concept, function and technology (or craft). For Zittel these three elements naturally exist in any man made object or entity and the way something looks, the way it functions and the way it is made are of equal interest and importance. The works fall under the loose heading of A-Z Advanced Technologies - a cross section of the creative output of A-Z West, Zittel’s home, workshop and testing ground in Joshua Tree, California. Pieces include the A-Z Fiber Form Uniforms, A-Z Single Strand Shapes, A-Z Raugh Furniture, and a series of studies for billboards based on her ongoing collection of “these things I know for sure”.
Of particular interest to Zittel are the different ‘rules’ that each material imposes on the shape or form it ultimately takes on and what one might term the ‘technologies’ that must be invented in each case. A crochet work, for example, starts from a single point and grows with a continuous forward motion, amassing in even increments to define it own formal possibilities as well as the functional practicalities.
Zittel’s work is about the hand and making at the same time as being conceptual; theorizing and technical problem-solving assist one another and may ultimately become one and the same process. Interested in the ‘rules’ of material, for the purposes of experiment Zittel has also imposed rules on her day to day existence; wearing a uniform for months on end, exploring limitations of living space, living without measured time. Although at times tough, she has found the invention of one’s own rules to be an essentially liberating experience. Zittel’s work can be understood as a single, far-reaching enterprise of research or enquiry, under the identity of “A-Z”.
Andrea Zittel has shown through Europe and the US, including several museum solo shows in recent years; Andrea Zittel: Small Liberties, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006) and Andrea Zittel: Critical Space, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2005), traveling to New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (NY), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. In 1997 she was included in Skulptur Projekte in Muenster 1997, Landesmuseum Muenster, Germany and Documenta X (curated by Catherine David), Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (cat.) and was in the Whitney Biennial in 1995 and 2004.
A-Z 2001 Homestead Units
29 Oct - 8 Dec 2001
American artist Andrea Zittel returns to Sadie Coles HQ to present the "A-Z
2001 Homestead Unit," the latest in her series of "A-Z Living Units" concerned with contemporary perceptions of freedom and personal liberation.
The "Homestead Unit" is the first piece to be produced at the "A-Z (New) West" studio, located in the California high desert adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park.
The design of the "A-Z 2001 Homestead Unit" is inspired by the tradition of homestead cabins in the desert region surrounding "A-Z (New) West." In the 1940s and 1950s the U.S. government gave settlers five acres of land for free if they could "improve" it with the construction of a minimal homestead structure. The result is a seemingly infinite grid system of dirt roads that cut up a very beautiful desert region. In the middle of each perfect square of land is a tiny shack most of them now have now long since been abandoned.
The original pioneering spirit of the "frontier" considered autonomy and self-sufficiency as prerequisites of personal freedom. At A-Z west, Zittel investigates how such perceptions of freedom have been re-adapted for contemporary living. Zittel believes that personal liberation is now achieved through individual attempts to "slip between the cracks". Instead of building big ranches and permanent homesteads, today's independence seekers prefer small portable structures, which evade the regulatory control of bureaucratic restrictions such as building and safety codes.
The "2001 A-Z Homestead Unit" reflects the qualities that Zittel feels create independence for the owner and user: compactness, adaptability and transportability. Because the unit is less than 120 square feet, it is zoned as a "temporary structure" and does not require building permits. The entire unit breaks down into a series of panels and can be transported and erected by two people in an only few hours.