
Ways of Living: Tobias Rehberger, Marjetica Potrc, Jorge Pardo and Andrea Zittel
1 October – 20 November 2005
The exhibition, Ways of Living, resonated with and against Ede’s vision of an aesthetic life. It revisited, through the work of four artists, the propositions posed by the house and collection at Kettle’s Yard, in terms of the nature, display and experience of artistic practice.
Jim Ede described Kettle’s Yard as ‘a way of life’. He created a house as a work of art in itself, where works of art, furniture, other objects and the effects of light are arranged in such a way as to transform daily life into a continuous, complete aesthetic experience. The exhibition, Ways of Living, resonated with and against Ede’s vision of an aesthetic life. It also revisited, through the work of four artists the propositions posed by the house and collection at Kettle’s Yard, in terms of the nature, display and experience of artistic practice.
Tobias Rehberger, Marjetica Potrc, Jorge Pardo and Andrea Zittel are all artists whose practices move freely across the disciplines of art, architecture and design. They use the domestic environment as a lens to reflect upon the ways in which public and private spaces intermingle today, and show how the patterns and pressures of lifestyles and visual culture constantly redefine the intersections of art and everyday life. Ways of Living included major installation works by each artist.
Tobias Rehberger examines our relationship to objects through processes that include appropriation, parody and translation; for “Lying Around Lazy, Not Even Moving for TV, Sweets, Coke and Vaseline” (1999), the artist invited friends to propose their vision of an ideal “relaxing” environment, then realised their plans in his more fashionable version.
Marjetica Potrc reconstructed a model from her Barefoot College project and show a suite of new drawings based on the hybrid built environments of postwar Belgrade. Her investigation and re-presentation in a gallery setting of temporary architectures and shantytown infrastructures from around the world celebrated human inventiveness and question western aesthetic canons.
Jorge Pardo, whose lights, furniture, sculptural objects, wall paintings and complete interiors test the boundary between artistic practice and design, presented an installation of new lamps and wall-based works.
Andrea Zittel’s self-contained “Living Units”, which make visible the highly fetishistic lifestyle of the global nomad, were exhibited in the UK for the first time.