Replacing home: from primordial hut to digital network in contemporary art

250 Pages·2012·6.313 MB·English

by  Johung, Jennifer

Replacing Home
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Replacing Home
FROM PRIMORDIAL HUT
TO DIGITAL NETWORK
IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Jennifer Johung
university of minnesota press
minneapolis
london
Copyright 2012 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johung, Jennifer.
Replacing home : from primordial hut to digital network in
contemporary art / Jennifer Johung.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7287-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8166-7288-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Place (Philosophy) in art. 2. Site-specific installations (Art).
3. Art, Modern—20th century—Themes, motives. 4. Art, Modern—
21st century—Themes, motives. I. Title. II. Title: From primordial
hut to digital network in contemporary art.
N8236.P46J64 2012
709.05—dc22
2011016768
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and
employer.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For John and Loretta
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Contents
Introduction Replacing Home ix
One Returning to the Hut 1
Dan Graham’s Two-Way Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube
Two Reusable Sites 33
Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estatesand the
Odd LotsExhibition
Three In and Out of Place 67
Modular Architecture and Reintegration
Four Visibly Skinned 97
Body Architecture and Transformable Clothing
Five Networked Dependencies 131
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Relational Architecture
Epilogue Almost Home 165
Acknowledgments 173
Notes 177
Bibliography 191
Index 201
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Introduction
REPLACING HOME
On a rooftop in Manhattan, the partial reflection of one body is
caught in a curving surface of mirrored glass, just as another body
passes along the other side, both held together for a moment at the
end of the afternoon sun, against the urban sprawl of New York
City below. A box of property deeds passes from hand to hand; the
corresponding plots are rediscovered again after thirty years, which
provokes one woman to don bright yellow clogs and lead a group to
and from some of those forgotten, hidden slivers of city property,
her soles trailing light footprints of chalk that mark new temporary
lines of access. A man sits alone, atop a small white fiberglass island
that rocks gently above the surface of a lake. A shipping container,
transformed into a fully functional living unit, docks into a vertical
framework along a city’s shore just as another docks out, about to
board a cargo ship for another destination. Across Rwanda, Japan,
Turkey, and India, makeshift homes are constructed within hours
using paper tubes. A woman puts on a reflective bodysuit, zipping it
completely over her head. Another takes off her dress and transforms
it into a dining table. Hours after logging on to a Web site and de-
signing a dome of light, a young boy in Mexico City looks up to see
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