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House Beautiful,
1994
Collection Le Consortium, Dijon, France
1994
Oil and acrylic paint, glass, plastic lid, yarn, silicone caulking
18 x 12 x 4 in
45.7 x 30.5 x 10.2 cm
Collection John Robertshaw, New York
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Transformation of
Ordinary Objects
Ordinary objects commonly
associated with domestic environments are removed from their setting and
intended functions in Stockholder’s works. In House Beautiful, household
items include a fan, balls of yard, a chandelier, and seven rugs. But these
are no ordinary objects; the fan is painted green, the carpets float from
cables, and the chandelier nearly collides with one of the rugs.
Dissociated from their function, the objects must then be redefined. The
fan, for example, no longer a distributor of air, instead moves color. At
the same time it becomes an abstract, vertical shape pointing towards—and
ineffectively attempting to contain—the massive triangle of the rugs as they
groan against their sturdy cables.
This transformation of objects into characters which do something makes the
objects part of a dynamic system as opposed to a still life or static
arrangement. The meaning of each individual component changes, but the parts
still retain their associations as objects.
In addition, Stockholder uses materials that can be found in domestic
settings, such as yarn, which evokes associations with “women’s work,” which
she alludes to in the title of the piece. However, the rough construction
process she uses implies a masculine presence in the environment. No matter
how viewers interpret Stockholder’s domestic sphere, her work unquestionably
brings intimate, private interiors of the home into the public realm of the
gallery and museum.
Interestingly, Stockholder’s objects appear pristine and new, putting them
in the category of art materials as opposed to found objects that maintain
individual histories. For instance, yarn is bunched together in active
clumps that function similarly to colored lines and shapes in a wild gesture
drawing. Stockholder brings sophisticated visual techniques to ordinary and
mundane materials.
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