“Real” Interiors

By LuAnne Silvia, ASID
I received an intriguing evite to attend a lecture at the Walker last Thursday. The info read: "Step back to 1971 with Keith Edmier's full-scale replica of the kitchen from his childhood home. The artist, who painstakingly sourced and fabricated the tiles, wallpaper, and furniture, talks about the art and craft of restaging "real" interiors with decorative arts curator Jennifer Komar Olivarez, who oversees the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' period rooms as well as its 1913 Purcell-Cutts House." Who could resist?
Photo courtesy of walkerart.org
They discussed what it means to create an interior and the inspiration behind it. The connection people have to places. How history, value, and memory affect our perception and sense of place. And when an interior space is created in a museum or gallery, is it a curatorial piece or a work of fine art?
It got me thinking about interior spaces and what it is that I do. At LiLu every time we create an interior we are setting the stage for people to live their lives. And we are capturing a moment in time. Each individual element (tile, wallpaper, furniture) makes up a unique space for a unique person. We transform people's lives by transforming their environment.
I thoroughly enjoyed every detail Keith Edmier executed in his exhibit Bremen Towne. It is part of the current show Lifelike that asks the question, Is it Real? The exhibit plays with scale of commonplace objects. A walk through is an experience in perception, what fun especially for a designer who manipulates scale every day!
Photo courtesy of my iphone!