Rachel Whiteread at the MFA
The installation of vintage dollhouses by Rachel Whiteread at the MFA (through January 25th) was both cozy and spooky, reminding me of Halloween night (circa It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown) and a favela in Rio de Janeiro. It suggests a model for the kind of small scale and haptic urbanism espoused by Teddy Cruz.
From the MFA: This exhibition features the US premiere of her most recent work, Place (Village) (2006-08) and traces the position of domestic objects through sculptures and drawings. Over several years, Whiteread has collected handmade English dollhouses and configured them into a sprawling “community” filled with haunting memories and melancholy. Place (Village), encompassing the left side of the Foster Gallery, appears as if it was discovered at night.
“Village…simultaneously encourages and thwarts voyeurism, inviting viewers to peer into one empty room after another. Eventually it turns the tables: the illuminated windows become hundreds of Lilliputian eyes.”
—The New York Times
Teddy Cruz’s housing proposal for Hudson, N.Y. The development would feature playgrounds, an outdoor amphitheater and spaces that could be used for arts or job-training programs, New York Times, February 19, 2008.
-Tim