Andrea Zittel
| Andrea Zittel | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Installation art, Social Practice, Contemporary Artist |
Andrea Zittel (born 1965) is an American artist based in Joshua Tree, CA whose practice encompasses spaces, objects and modes of living in an ongoing investigation that explores the questions “How to live?” and “What gives life meaning?”
Born in Escondido, California, in 1965, Zittel graduated from San Pasqual High School in 1983. Zittel received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and sculpture from San Diego State University in 1988, and an MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990.
In the early 1990s, Zittel began making art in response to her own surroundings and daily routines, creating functional objects relating to shelter, furniture, and clothing “in an ongoing endeavor to better understand human nature and the social construction of needs.” It was then she began working under the name “A-Z Administrative Services,” which evolved into the A-Z Enterprise that continues to encompass all aspects of day-to-day living. Home furniture, clothing, food all become the sites of investigation in an ongoing endeavor to better understand human nature. Zittel reconsiders the significance of given social structures, revealing that what may seem fixed and rational is often arbitrary. “What I’m interested in,” Zittel said, “is that each person examines his own goals, talents and options, and then based on these begins to invent new models or roles to fulfill his or her needs.”
In the early 1990s Zittel’s Brooklyn studio became a showroom testing ground known as “A-Z East,” where she would prototype and live with her experimental designs for living. In 1991 she made the first of her “A-Z Six-Month Personal Uniforms”—garments that she wore every day for six-month periods of time. Like the uniforms, many of Zittel’s projects embody and establish a set of strict rules for living; however, she suggests that these systems can instead allow for more freedom and creativity. “What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves”
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