Andrea Zittel at Regen Projects

by Tommy Freeman

Andrea Zittel—so she seems—is obsessed with utility: self contained, efficient utility. Whether it be her earlier explorations of 'designs for living,' which included reworking the 24-hour clock to better reflect various periods of activity throughout the day, or her experiments with the functionality of personal space, Zittel's work (or better put: her life) always seeks to strike a balance between what is necessary and what is extraneous to living a complete life: a life free of the conformities demanded and expected by a capital-based culture. Her latest installation at Regen Projects is a culmination of the experiments conducted by the A-Z Corporation, Zittel's not-so-fictitious agency that cleverly utilizes the artist's initials as a brand name, which is dedicated to redefining the status of the self in developing personalized environments.

This installation is comprised of two elements: a digital slide show displayed on a flat-screen wall-mounted monitor titled Sufficient Self and a small, simple living structure nestled among an artificial rock outcropping constructed of high-density gray foam. The structure's external aesthetic exists somewhere between the Bauhaus sensibility and the recently omni-present temporary portable classrooms that litter nearly every public school campus in California. In contrast to its steel framed exterior the dwelling's interior is reminiscent of vintage Airstream recreational vehicles, which are adorned with warm plywood and include many of the comforts of home, all of them on a much smaller scale. This small domicile is one of the most recent products developed by A-Z West (Zittel's west coast doppelganger to the her corporation's original location in New York: A-Z East). This and other variations of the work were largely inspired by some of the remaining houses near Joshua Tree, California that were originally built under the terms of the U.S. Homestead Act, which granted land to homesteaders so long as they improved their acreage with a minimal structure and maintained residency for at least five years, after which the land was theirs free and clear. Most of the Homestead homes are now either long gone or have fallen into extreme disrepair, but what attracted Zittel to utilize these minimal structures as motif was a combination of their diminutive capacity—which resonates closely with her previous work—and the implicit assumption in the government act that homesteaders would be self-sufficient.

Freedom emerges as the central theme upon which most of Zittel's projects are hinged. Like the freedom that was gained by pioneering homesteaders in moving to parts relatively unknown, and hence relatively free from the hierarchical control of developed society, Zittel's Homestead Units—the structure on display in this exhibition is but one of many—attempt to escape the confines of municipal control by way of their small size. Because the units occupy less than 120 square feet they fall into the category of "temporary structure" and do not require building permits. And because they can be easily erected or dismantled and transported by two people they also provide the freedom of mobility, which is obviously hindered by permanent structures

The Homestead Units—like most of Zittel's work—are customizable and each is a reflection of both the artist's vision as well as that of the person for which each is made. The one presented here, A-Z Homestead Unit From A-Z West, with Rough Furniture (2001-2004), is decorated with Zittel's own line of furniture as indicated by the title. It is sparsely supplied with a minimum of human necessities such as a bed, four water bottles all filled to the exact same level, an example of an A-Z Fiber Uniform (a.k.a. clothing), and a few A-Z Containers (a.k.a. bowls). Most of the objects Zittel produces are actually familiar items that have been subtly reworked and given new titles within the A-Z paradigm.

Sufficient Self (2004) is a Power Point presentation that shows images of A-Z products in various stages of production interspersed with text pages on which Zittel describes various humdrum events and practices in which she partakes on her compound at A-Z West. Included here are examples of rules she has developed for herself in order to make her life more efficient. For example, in one slide she explains her rule for getting dressed and keeping her room clean. Upon getting out of the shower, she does not allow herself to put on one item of clothing until she has picked up five items that are scattered about. This ritual is assumedly repeated until she is either dressed or her room is clean. Though this seems extremely rigid and controlled and in direct conflict with the rhetoric of her projects, this may actually exemplify her intent: that these rules are developed by one's self, not others.

While Zittel's body of work thus far is definitely thorough in scope, it is nonetheless extremely utopian and like all utopias it bares with it the burden of dealing with the inevitability of human desire, which always seems to at the same time long for, and long to break the rules of society. In fact at a certain point one begins to wonder if in all her efforts to fulfill the desire to become free from the formalized standards of contemporary society, Zittel has not actually developed a new system of social constraints. In essence, here one set of rules has been replaced by another, albeit self-implied. But this new set seems to precariously sit the relatively weak fence that separates communism from fascism. I can't help but wonder what it would be like as a visitor to A-Z West, who when asking for a glass of water might be instructed that there are no glasses here, only A-Z Liquid Sustenance Vessels.

First published in the March issue of Artweek.

publication date: April 2005