Andrea Zittel, A-Z Escape
Vehicles, 1996.
Bumper Sticker for A-Z
Escape Vehicles.
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the artnet hit list
by John Mendelsohn
andrea zittel
at andrea rosen gallery
Nov. 1 - Dec. 7, 1996
The "A-Z Escape Vehicle" is a line of mini
mobile homes designed by Andrea Zittel.
Each just big enough for a single occupant,
these metal shells come ready for
customizing. Four individualized versions
(by the artist and three collaborators),
and an empty prototype are on display.
Looking inside the popped hatch of an
altered module, we become voyeurs of
someone else's 100 cubic feet of fantasy
escape. They range from the artist's own
ersatz grotto with colored lights and
waterfall, to Andrea Rosen's baby blue
velvet tufted coffin/coach complete with
bar and sound system, to Robert Schiffler's
flotation tank, to Dean Valentine's witty
homage to Joseph Cornell.
These works answer the yearnings of the
`90s nesting impulse, one isolated psyche
at a time. And they constitute Zittel's
satire on individualism, the open road, and
a room of one's own. While her earlier
living modules had the appearance of chicly
designed behavioral experiments, these
models with their `50s profile, are
positively cute by comparison, a little
like a Faberge egg inside a canned ham.
Here a select population gets to
participate in its own experiment whose
premise seems to be: "Where does shelter
end and prison begin?" Plus, as the
millennium approaches, who can gainsay the
appeal of the notion of an "escape
vehicle."
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