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- Los Angeles Times
- December 6, 2007 Thursday
Home Edition
- ART;
Evoking a seduction in 'Little House'
- BYLINE: Shana Ting Lipton
- SECTION: THE GUIDE; Calendar Desk;
Part H; Pg. 15
- LENGTH: 410 words
-
- SOMETIMES armoires seem to flirt,
and keyholes appear to wink. At least that's how furniture conceptually
"behaves" in Victor Burgin's "The Little House,"
an experimental work at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture's
Schindler House.
-
- To experience the piece, visitors
flow through the empty 1922 structure (designed by architect
Rudolf M. Schindler as his family home), listening to a story
by way of speakers placed in the various rooms.
- For the installation, veteran British
conceptual artist Burgin adapted a translation of Jean-Francois
de Bastide's French novella "La Petite Maison" (1758),
which depicts the seduction of a virtuous woman amid flamboyant
descriptions of a home and its furnishings. Leslie Dick's narration
pumps out through the speakers: "The furniture gleams with
fine lacquer and is upholstered in yellow silk. At the center
of the ceiling, a crystal chandelier hangs from the mouth of
a golden dragon."
-
- The catch is that there is no furniture
on site. In this case, guests' imaginations play interior decorator.
-
- "The work is about being in
one place and seeing another," Burgin says. "Your mind
projects images from the soundtrack onto the blank walls."
- The title of the show, "The
Little House," not only describes the petite and low-ceilinged
Modernist home, but also an 18th century French social phenomenon
among the aristocracy. "It was a type of outbuilding,"
says MAK Center Director Kimberli Meyer. "Apparently these
little houses were also used for romantic liaisons -- places
where the house owners could go and have private time."
-
- Despite the cornerstone being laid,
so to speak, almost two centuries after the European libertine
tale was originally told, the Schindler House and its beamed
ceilings and high bamboo-encased garden play their parts in the
seduction by design.
- One of the bare rooms is aurally
ornamented by a pairing of piano music and the story track, offering
a crossover between 18th century France and 1920s Los Angeles.
Lady of the house Pauline Schindler apparently hosted piano concerts
in the room. The music, the words and even the Spartan interior
all seem quite inviting, especially for reluctant paramours who
"need space."
-
- -- Shana Ting Lipton
- theguide@latimes.com
- --
- 'THE LITTLE HOUSE'
- WHERE: MAK Center for Art and Architecture,
Schindler House, 835 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood
- WHEN: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays;
ends Feb. 24
- PRICE: $7, or $17 with guidebook
- INFO: (323) 651-1510, www.makcenter.org
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