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Photo: Andres Jauregui
In a city that seems too often in want of green, natural spaces, country comfort is at a premium. As summer wanes, urban denizens flock to parks and other outdoor oases to soak up every last bit of pastoral relief before the inevitable onset of winter. But, a new installation in Williamsburg poses questions about the relationship between the interior and the exterior.
Opened Septamber 4 as part of performance space Monster Island's fifth-annual end of summer festivities, "Fit for Habitation" (at the Live With Animals gallery, 210 Kent Avenue) challenges the idea that four walls make a home. A collaboration by five artists working in the fields of fine art, design, and interior design, the installation creates an interactive domicile through use of organic and inorganic media. Sod provides shag carpeting, and plastic flower "bulbs" radiate a phantom luminescence of projected pastoral scenes. The juxtaposition and replacement of real and fake elements calls into question whether human beings need the "reality" of a home, or merely the illusion of comfort and safety.
Photo: Andres Jauregui
A miniature labyrinth of cutaway views and perforated shelters provides participans in the interactive exhibit the opportunity to create their own spaces within the space. Resting areas are suggested, but not mandated: a viewer may sit on pillows and watch a short film projected on the linen roof of a tent, or merely pass through its grassy corridor. A stone wall and foldable lawn chair provide a nook to view the street scenes of Metropolitan Avenue. A late summer cricket seranade chrips quietly from behind the loose confines of a colorful rag teepee. While clearly and overtly unorthodox in construction, the calm and comfort of home persists among strangers in a strange environment. One feels inclined to sit and make "Fit for Habitation" one's own.
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Photo: Andres Jauregui
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