Charles LeDray's Bone Rocker (1995)
David Zwirner gallery in New York is currently showing “The House Without the Door.” Inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem Doom is the House without the Door, the exhibition is influenced by the idea of the home as a charged psychological space.
“The House Without the Door” includes works that evoke domestic scenes by Adel Abdessemed, Eija-Liisa Ahtil, David Altmejd, Francis Alys, Mamma Andersson, Louise Bourgeois, Michael Brown, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Maureen Gallace, Isa Genzken, Robert Gober, Mona Hatoum, Toba Khedoori, Charles LeDray, Thomas Ruff, Gregor Schneider, Luc Tuymans, Jeff Wall, and Rachel Whiteread.
Interiority, domesticity, agoraphobia, self-imprisonment, domestic abuse, and memory are themes explored in the works of the 19 contemporary artists on view. In many of the pieces, the home becomes a place that produces mania, anxiety, and desperation.
Jeff Wall’s Rear (1997) which the title of the exhibition developed from, depicts a drug addict standing outside the back door of a rundown house with a small photo insert to the right of a hole in the back door used to exchanged money for dope. In this image, the door should deny access, making the house a safe haven, but the door instead permits transgression.
Toba Khedoori’s large-scale work on paper, Untitled (White Fireplace) (2005) becomes an unsettling representation of dislocation and failure. The subject, a fireplace, is one that is usually a symbol of warmth, tranquility, and domestic comfort but Khedoori disassembles this vision by divorcing the subject.
Mamma Andersson’s work Sovrum/Bedroom (2007) inspired the theme of the show: domestic portrayals as charged spaces. Sovrum/Bedroom reveals a claustrophobic, empty interior that seems innocent at first glance, but discloses psychological weight given the positioning of the furniture in the room and the possibility of a domestic disturbance. The home becomes a charged place of refuge, security, isolation, and violence.
“The House Without the Door” is on view at David Zwirner through August 5, 2011.
Jeff Wall's Rear (1997)
Toba Khedoori's Untitled (White Fireplace) (2005)
Mona Hatoum's Home (1999)
A Polaroid from a series depicting domestic scenes by Philip-Lorca diCorcia
All images by Nicolette Whitney.
