On Site: Andrea Zittel

The second project in the On Site series features a work by American artist Andrea Zittel. Zittel is best known for her sculptures and installations that transform everything necessary for life - such as eating, sleeping, bathing and socializing - into artful experiments in living. Influenced by modernist design and architecture from the early part of the 20th century, Zittel's one-woman mock organization, "A-Z Administrative Services," develops furniture, homes and vehicles for contemporary consumers with a similar simplicity and attention to order.

Zittel specializes in creating compartmentalized living units - fully functional microcosms that could well serve the space constraints on an overpopulated planet. These pieces are somehow simultaneously absurd, satiric and functional. Zittel splits her time between New York and Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, maintaining homes and studios in both places.

The work featured at MAM is entitled A-Z Wagon Station and was designed by the artist specifically for the Schroeder Galleria. The design of A-Z Wagon Station is inspired by two different eras of wagons: the covered wagon that housed possessions and provided shelter from the elements, and the station wagon, from which the scale of each of the 12 units is derived. The units are designed to be easily transportable, allowing the owner maximum autonomy and independence from regulatory controls such as building and safety codes.

A-Z Wagon Station located in the Schroeder Galleria.