Case Study #22
Margreiter's photo of Case Study House #22 is not only simply a 'critical reconstruction' but rather, a reflection on the gestures of appropriation that always also signal particular connoisseurship and knowing superiority. The self-registration in the reproduction of Shulman's photo evokes a 'Life' effect that profits from the iconic aura of the original. But the way in which Margreiter's work links the quote of Shulman's photograph to modern product advertising points out both the fact that, and the extent to which media paradigms rooted in Modernist architecture have worked together in the (postmodern) desire for chic, representation-fixated surfaces. The apparently authentic conversation of the two women makes the aesthetic of the everyday visible as a permanent (self-) directive to work on one's self—a directive that does not need to proclaim any authority in order to be effective at home, at the workplace, on the street, in the imaginary Hollywood studio, or in the arena of the art business. Here too, one can recognize the features of a 'social factory' in which the everyday performance is suitable for raising the productivity of life.
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(excerpt from Sabeth Buchmann 'Eyes On The World', in 'Dorit Margreiter. 10104 Angelo View Drive')
4-channel installation
featuring Pierre Koenig, Julius Shulman, Carlotta Stahl
camera: Dorit Margreiter, Markus Wailand
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