Olivia Erlanger “Appliance” at Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna

Created by the artist and carried out on the opening evening, the play Humour in the Water Coolant is the story of a girl haunted by the appliances in her new home. Working with the participate in as its starting point, the set up lingers amongst domestic suburban inside and theatre set. The play’s title references the aqueous humour of the eye and mechanical fluids located in engines, revising the metaphor of a overall body as architecture to system as equipment. Inferring various attitudes, class and aspirations as a result of item placement and inside corporation, the installation unfolds as an archive, a studying area and a room for action. Erlanger presents an natural environment motivated by Norman Klein’s thought of “scripted space” and informed by historic exhibitions such as MoMA’s “Houses of the Future” (1932) and “Good Design” (1950). Here, the gallery turns into a fractured, clear residence providing a psychic isometric check out. The structure and perform of various rooms of the residence are described by their appliances fairly than perimeter walls.

Established in the course of a séance to rid the dwelling of its haunted aura, the participate in explores the pan-psychic likely of domestic objects. The appliances, now equipped to converse, express their emotional lives, rife with dissatisfaction, disappointment, and eventually a wish to join and enjoy. The psychological effects of their declining use and features antagonizes the concept of technological advancement as a constructive progress, reframing it as a suggests of escape. What does ageing suggest for these objects “born” on the assembly line, whose sections are conveniently changed or whose obsolescence is already prepared?

at Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna
until October 29, 2022