Andrea Zittel’s “Carpet Furniture” project to me was something
that intrigued me because it almost felt like everything in the 3-Dimensional
space was being flattened into a 2-Dimensional space- everything that required
space suddenly didn’t. Zittel turns furniture into a carpet while still keeping
the idea of furniture intact. The carpet shows an image of a flattened bed,
chair and table. These objects all in a way represent the sense of
comfortability in our lives. These objects that represent relaxation takes us
to the next step where it is better to have an idea of something, reduced to a
flat surface than to have everything but with the risk of losing space.
Although that space that used to be occupied is physically empty, by keeping a
plan view of the furniture, it is as if nothing has changed except that we are
mentally liberated.
I think that this project in relation to Foucault makes sense when
Foucault talks about the idea of discipline, enclosure and the coding of space
where a body is confined to a specific space. I think Zittel eliminates the
physical idea of this enclosure. The segregation of a body is void when that
space the body is confined to is reduced to a carpet. Zittel deals with the
constraint of Foucault’s claim that we are locked up in an area where we are
reduced to being controlled by the space. According to Foucault, our bodies, in
space are oriented on a way that we are directed to someone of authority and
respect and that our bodies are blocked away from each other. If we were to
think of desks and chairs in a classroom reduced to a simple carpet, would this
idea of discipline still have the same affect?
In relation to de Certeau’s “Spatial Stories” as well as looking
at Zittel’s work as a spatial story, the notion the “if we limit ourselves to
the home….. one can’t do anything in them”
and that a long lost attic “could be used for everything” ; how these
are “treatments of space” is similar to Zittel’s focus in “Carpet Furniture” in
that a space, when manipulated but at the same time still maintaining the idea
of that space. It is not the space that defines our limitation or our
liberation but it is how we treat the space that gives us the mentality of
space as a limitation as well as liberation. Also, according to de Certeau, “it
is the partition of space that structures it”; by keeping the idea of the
partition constant even when reducing furniture from a three dimensional object
to a two dimensional, the structure of the space is maintained. There is still
the differentiation between spaces even without the physical division itself.
These Things I know for Sure
“What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom,
but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed
for ourselves”
I think that reducing the amount of material does not necessarily
mean that there is a sense of liberation and freedom especially the 'rules'-
the representation of that object is still existent. I also think that
liberation is not necessarily a good thing. I think the limitation exists in
order for use to appreciate liberation. The reduction of material in Andrea
Zittel's carpet furniture still represents the idea of limitation through the
boundaries of each 'flat' furniture but at the same time liberates us of the
space normally occupied.
No comments:
Post a Comment