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| Andrea Zittel was born in Escondido, California. She received a BFA in painting and sculpture in 1988 from San Diego State University, and an MFA in sculpture in 1990 from the Rhode Island School of Design. Zittel’s sculptures and installations transform everything necessary for life—such as eating, sleeping, bathing, and socializing—into artful experiments in living. Blurring the lines between life and art, Zittel’s projects extend to her own home and wardrobe. Zittel continually reinvents her relationship to her domestic and social environment. Influenced by modernist design and architecture from the early part of the twentieth century, the artist’s one-woman mock organization, “A-Z Administrative Services,” develops furniture, homes, and vehicles for consumers with a similar simplicity and attention to order.
Andrea Zittel’s work encompasses 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 and our modern day needs. Living and working in Joshua Tree, Zittel decided to try to find a way to use paper waste as a building material. Dried paper pulp is lightweight, incredibly strong, and it can be molded into shapes that look like fiberglass, concrete or even travertine stone. The dry desert, where her studio is sited, is the ideal site for this type of new technology. Zittel’s goal was to create attractive, durable wall panels that could camouflage bad walls and add softness and texture to a room, reminiscent of the phenomena of wood paneling of the 60s and 70s, but with a contemporary spin.  (For Grades 4-6) What is your first impression of the material the piece is made of? Why do you think the artist decided to use old paper to create these panels? What other materials can you see that she incorporated into the piece? Can you find the small piece of tin foil she once used to bake a potato? |
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| Andrea Zittel
United States, born 1965 Paper Pulp Panels, 2002 molded paper pulp on steel frame 72 x 72.5 x 1.5 in. (182.9 x 184.2 x 3.8 cm) Gift of Anne Hogar and Robert Conn 2005.21 © Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |
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