New York Report: Andrea Zittel at the New Museum of Contemporary Art

One of the highlights of my trip to New York a couple of weeks ago was catching the Andrea Zittel Critical Space exhibit in Chelsea with Jill Danyelle. My biggest take-away from the retrospective was how cool it is to muster up the courage to make space, time and place work for you rather than feeling constrained by convention or, simply, short-signted ideas that were designed to make other people money. Zittel's "pioneer lady" experiments in the desert at AZ West contrast with her predecessor US pioneer women who worked so diligently to replicate Eastern versions of the proper home and table. She also bucks the history of "scientific" homemaking that coincided with the marketing of cleaning products and women's magazines and the "rise of the experts" in the early 20th century. Her "Ten Things I Know For Sure" list of lessons learned in creating her routines echo the modern-day Oprafied language of experts, but emerge straight from Andrea's experience. Especially intriguing were the collected felted "uniforms" pictured above. Thanks to Jill and the New Museum for the photos. See more at fiftyrx3. :: New Museum of Contemporary Art