0:00:07.440,0:00:12.380 [Andrea Zittel: Art & Design] 0:00:22.840,0:00:24.490 Joshua Tree is sort of unique; 0:00:24.490,0:00:27.250 it's two and a half hours from [br]Los Angeles, 0:00:27.250,0:00:29.760 but on the edge of open desert. 0:00:29.760,0:00:31.680 So if you continue driving to the East, 0:00:31.680,0:00:34.090 it just completely opens up. 0:00:34.090,0:00:38.530 And everyone here kind of comes [br]from somewhere else. 0:00:39.519,0:00:42.679 I've been at Joshua Tree for [br]fourteen years. 0:00:44.480,0:00:48.820 I wanted to live in a community [br]that was outside of the art world. 0:00:54.569,0:00:58.989 I really think that design should [br]talk about life and living. 0:00:59.960,0:01:04.099 It's really sort of interesting talking [br]about design, but through art. 0:01:05.440,0:01:08.740 Every space that I've lived in, I've [br]turned into an art project. 0:01:08.750,0:01:14.690 And, I think that everything in the house[br]has really evolved with my life. 0:01:16.050,0:01:18.280 The original part of the house [br]is the kitchen. 0:01:18.280,0:01:21.500 And then on the back side of the kitchen,[br]there's a bedroom. 0:01:21.500,0:01:26.160 And then when I bought it, I ended up [br]adding the room that we're standing in-- 0:01:26.160,0:01:27.710 this used to be the driveway-- 0:01:27.710,0:01:31.750 and a bedroom for my son. 0:01:34.820,0:01:38.413 There's this like other question, that I[br]ask myself that comes up a lot too 0:01:38.413,0:01:43.140 and it's like that question of why to[br]be an artist and not a designer. 0:01:43.600,0:01:47.560 I remember thinking that if an art [br]historian, like a hundred years from now, 0:01:47.560,0:01:49.560 had to talk about my generation, 0:01:49.560,0:01:52.760 that it would be almost impossible to talk[br]about it 0:01:52.770,0:01:55.130 in, sort of, a significant cultural sense 0:01:55.130,0:01:59.650 without touching on what was going [br]on in design at the same time. 0:02:00.540,0:02:03.460 There's this, kind of, privileged position[br]of being an artist 0:02:03.460,0:02:07.230 where you can do things on a [br]more experimental nature 0:02:07.230,0:02:10.310 simply to see what happens. 0:02:23.030,0:02:25.650 You know, we have to order so [br]many materials out here-- 0:02:25.650,0:02:27.290 we can't just go out and buy them. 0:02:27.290,0:02:29.360 And all these cardboard boxes[br]would come in. 0:02:29.360,0:02:32.860 And for a while, I just started [br]stacking the cardboard boxes on the wall 0:02:32.860,0:02:34.640 and putting things in them, 0:02:34.640,0:02:37.490 and thinking about how I could [br]actually turn them into, 0:02:37.490,0:02:41.310 like, some sort of more permanent [br]structure. 0:02:45.340,0:02:50.760 I think that the ambiguity of how things[br]are meant to be used is deliberate, 0:02:50.760,0:02:56.100 and I think it becomes one of the[br]more interesting parts of the work. 0:02:59.560,0:03:03.740 I think it's really interesting if [br]somebody has one of these in their house, 0:03:03.740,0:03:06.459 they're going to decide if they [br]want to keep it pristine, 0:03:06.459,0:03:08.450 sort of like a Donald Judd sculpture; 0:03:08.450,0:03:11.550 or, if they want to start piling it up [br]with books 0:03:11.550,0:03:15.330 and stones that they find on trips [br]and stuff like that. 0:03:16.380,0:03:19.300 These are some of my favorite works[br]and I mean, 0:03:19.310,0:03:20.910 it comes back to the grid. 0:03:20.910,0:03:25.500 And, I think that the grid is [br]representative of human aspirations. 0:03:28.240,0:03:30.180 I mean, everything is based on [br]the grid-- 0:03:30.180,0:03:32.130 the calendar, our schedules. 0:03:32.680,0:03:35.940 You know, it's about human perfection. 0:03:35.940,0:03:39.060 I love the tension where, like, this[br]is trying to be perfect-- 0:03:39.060,0:03:41.599 and when we make them, we try [br]and make them really perfect 0:03:41.599,0:03:44.279 but they just don't want to be. 0:04:00.240,0:04:04.160 I did two really big exhibitions [br]of weaving. 0:04:04.170,0:04:06.770 Weaving, I had always thought [br]about conceptually 0:04:06.770,0:04:08.770 because it's the grid. 0:04:11.629,0:04:13.760 They really seem like they have [br]a lot of imperfections, 0:04:13.760,0:04:17.519 which is part of the reason that [br]they're so interesting. 0:04:19.209,0:04:22.280 We decided to do a really, really [br]big weaving. 0:04:22.280,0:04:25.770 We did a bunch of smaller ones [br]and got really confident. 0:04:25.770,0:04:27.250 [LAUGHS] 0:04:27.250,0:04:28.510 Maybe artificially confident. 0:04:28.510,0:04:32.670 But, like, in the process, we're having a[br]lot of problems with the warp. 0:04:32.670,0:04:34.690 [ZITTEL, OFF SCREEN] I hope somebody will[br]be watching this, who will, like... 0:04:34.690,0:04:35.810 "Yeah, oh those idiots, they shouldn't [br]have done..." 0:04:35.810,0:04:37.060 [WOMAN] "I can't believe they're [br]doing that!" 0:04:37.060,0:04:37.560 [ZITTEL] Yeah. 0:04:37.560,0:04:38.800 [WOMAN] Maybe they'll write in. 0:04:38.800,0:04:39.960 [ZITTEL] They'll tell us what to do. 0:04:39.960,0:04:40.640 [WOMAN] Exactly! 0:04:40.640,0:04:41.420 [ZITTEL] It'll be awesome. 0:04:41.420,0:04:42.420 [WOMAN] Email us! 0:04:42.430,0:04:45.270 [ZITTEL] The warp is getting really uneven[br]and stretched out, 0:04:45.270,0:04:47.270 and so that's why we have all these blocks[br]of wood 0:04:47.270,0:04:50.150 and pieces of rocks hanging from it. 0:04:51.960,0:04:55.260 For the last few years, I've been working[br]with the idea of a panel, 0:04:55.260,0:04:57.540 and trying to find the intersection [br]between 0:04:57.540,0:05:03.460 a very subtle, minimal object that's both[br]fine art and design. 0:05:16.360,0:05:18.040 You could say that design has [br]power 0:05:18.050,0:05:21.590 because it actually touches people in a [br]much more concrete way; 0:05:21.590,0:05:25.280 but, I think that art has more wiggle room 0:05:25.280,0:05:27.630 and more flexibility. 0:05:29.060,0:05:33.980 And maybe I am as interested in failure as[br]I am in success.