The idea
of the deserted island represents both our biggest fear
and our biggest fantasy.
For the past six years my work has almost exclusively dealt
with aspects of private space and personal experience. When
I begin to think about translating these interests to public
space I bound myself drawn to issues of territory; the need
for personal identity or autonomy; and then our simultaneous
and often conflicting desire for security and intimacy of
"community".
I think that my ideas about individuality and community
as they relate to territory are distinctly American in that
I perceive Americans as being more sensitized to physical,
rather than cultural boundaries. The American pioneering
spirit has created within us a real drive towards the possession
and protection of definable territory. This territory may
be identified by a green lawn and chain link fence, by our
desire to ride to work within the isolation of our own private
vehicles, or by our reluctance to share a restaurant table
with strangers.
Perhaps this is why I respond so eagerly to the physicality
of the European moated city, which I can't help but view
as an island and a ship. These comforting and secure images
attempt a self-contained entity-like a familiar planet floating
in an unknown universe. And yet, at the same time, this
entity contains an intimacy and sense of community not necessarily
found in contemporary urban life.
When I think about a popular icon that reminds me both
of the European moated city and the American desire for
isolationism, the image of the deserted island comes to
mind. I love the way that the "deserted island" is used
to represent both our biggest fear and our greatest fantasy.
This attraction/repulsion plays itself out in popular culture
via representations such as the cartoon of the overworked
insurance salesman marooned on a deserted island with two
beautiful bikini clad women, or the story of Robinson Crusoe
destined to struggle alone on his island against the odds
of nature.
The project that I would like to propose for Muenster is
the placement of several A-Z Deserted Islands in a little
body of water which remains as a recollected fragment of
the old city moat. The A-Z Deserted Islands are proposed
as a series of fiberglass (or fiberglass reinforced concrete)
islands. The islands will look like a cross between an artificial
land formation and a recreational fiberglass boat. I am
visualizing, the A-Z Deserted Islands as a prototype for
a mass-reproducible recreational vehicle that could conceivably
be marketed for the purpose of "an individualized experience
of isolation within a safe and comfortable environment".
I find it rather ironic that it is the mass produced product
that best mediates our often contradictory desires of craving
individual experience, with the need to maintain oneself
within a safe and predictable environment. |