“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.” – Andrea Zittel
Over the last 25 years, Andrea Zittel has developed an unparalleled deep and complex practice in which spaces, objects and acts of living all intertwine as an ongoing investigation into what it means to exist and participate in our culture today. Recognized by numerous preeminent, recurring themes that illuminate her unique territory––ideas about our need for structure and the examination of articulated human constructs––Zittel has throughout maintained a core of investigation of chosen reality fields.
This exhibition, as part of a greater continuum and reinforcing the power of abstraction, focuses on two new bodies of work––Planar Configurations and Linear Sequences––simultaneously installed within the gallery and three sites in the Mojave Desert. Continuing a deep, ongoing exploration of the plane––existing both as literal and psychological fields of reality––these abstract forms hold the capacity for two separate and essential visceral experiences: of art object and active living unit. This clear duality, transcending both formal abstraction and function, embodies a distinct and evolving symbiosis between two parallel paths, and nurtures a staggering dialogue around how a physical manifestation can embody pure experience and also exist in completely separate realms and trajectories of contemporary art and life.
Expanding the geographical and experiential territory of A-Z West––Zittel’s life project in the Southern California Mojave Desert––two 1940s homestead cabins east of Joshua Tree were developed into the “Wonder Valley Experimental Living Cabins”. These 400 sq. ft., off-the-grid “islands” each house identical Planar Configurations to those presented in the main gallery, providing highly considered living spaces to experience the works in a parallel context. Likewise, Linear Sequences, similarly comprised of vertical and horizontal panels of varying materials and dimensions and investigating linear support systems, are installed in both the second gallery and Andrea Zittel’s private home in Joshua Tree.
Andrea Zittel lives and works in Joshua Tree, CA. Her work has been exhibited extensively worldwide, and is in notable public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern, London; among many others.
Information on A-Z West and the Experimental Living Cabins is available through Andrea Rosen Gallery and www.zittel.org. For media and press inquiries, please contact Justin Conner at justin@hellothirdeye.com.
Download PDF
