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Andrea Zittel
Under the aegis of A–Z Administrative Services, a pseudo-corporation currently headquartered at her home in Joshua Tree, Andrea Zittel has developed a broad array of projects—portable habitats, handmade uniforms, high-efficiency food systems—that disregard distinctions between the conceptual and the utilitarian. She regards the entire A–Z enterprise as an “institute of investigative living”; as part of this investigation, she has said, “I am always looking for the gray area between freedom (which can sometimes feel too open-ended and vast) and security (which may easily turn into confinement).” What better emblem of the interplay between freedom and confinement than the travel trailer, a tiny enclosure for exploring the vast outdoors?
Evoking the look of a vintage station wagon with its green paint and wood trim, the boxy A–Z Travel Trailer Unit Customized by Miriam and Gordon Zittel (1995) brings to mind the all-American family vacation, an adventure in both travel and interpersonal relations. In fact, the museum’s version of this work—one of three fabricated to Zittel’s specifications at a Southern California RV company—has its own family values: it was outfitted for Zittel’s parents, who used it to re-create their 1960s honeymoon drive up the California coast. The Zittels usually live on a sailboat, and the interior of their trailer includes nautical touches like a porthole bathroom mirror; the other two trailers are also customized to reflect the individual needs and preferences of their inhabitants. A–Z Travel Trailer Unit diverts what would normally be a mass-produced industrial product into the territory of the personal and handmade—a detour typical of Zittel’s designs for living.
Juliet Clark
Editor
