THe Domestic Plane

The Domestic Plane, a show by C.T. Jasper and Joanna Malinowska, toys with the overarching cultural influences and pressures that affect our seemingly mundane choices in furnishing and occupying our domestic spaces.

Is there any common denominator connecting the disparate and fragmentary objects in the show—a dysfunctional washing machine that tries to be a homemade particle collider, a mud-cake tapestry, a set of faux furniture appropriated from the films of Jacques Tati, a pretend-analog TV presenting Allen Ginsberg's America read by a mysterious Russian, and statues of Sophie Taeuber-Arp and her sister dressed up as Kachina Dolls for one of their Dada performances?

Taken out of their original context, the thread of continuity would seemingly be the utilitarian and domestic character of the pieces. They populate the space in the hopes of domesticating it, of making it more livable and people-friendly. This exhibition takes the form of an open-ended process. Throughout its duration, some objects will disappear, change their placement, or be replaced by other artworks. Each day will bring a new exhibit, never twice the same. Much as domestic spaces are constantly rearranged as their occupants' lives grow and change, so too will this exhibit, reflecting the central thread of domesticity that carries through the show. 

Through the inherent humor and falsely cheerful mood that seeps from these objects, the artists also hope to provoke reflections on the culturally inherited choices we make when composing our domestic spaces and domestic décor, a context often unexamined.