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Daniel Joseph Martinez: The Project.


Daniel Joseph Martinez's installation The House America Built, 2004, is spare, quick, and tightly focused. It consists of one oversize o·ver·size  
n.
1. A size that is larger than usual.

2. An oversize article or object.

adj. o·ver·size also o·ver·sized
Larger in size than usual or necessary.

Adj. 1.
, custom-built shack--big enough to house you or me--wedged into the gallery to look as if it had landed there by accident and suffered some damage in the process. Split apart along a seam running from roofline roof·line  
n.
The profile of or silhouette made by a roof or series of roofs.
 to foundation and no longer standing exactly true, the structure is decidedly out of order. Instead of an open door there are large cracks to peer through. Bobbing up and down and shifting this way and that to get a better view inside is rather like trying to see more than is really visible when you look through the peephole in Duchamp's Etant donnes, 1946-66. In Martinez's theater, the interior is entirely off-limits and there's not a body in sight--except our own.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Completely at odds with the woodsy aesthetic of the building's rough, unfinished insides, its exterior is clad in colorful, rusticated rus·ti·cate  
v. rus·ti·cat·ed, rus·ti·cat·ing, rus·ti·cates

v.intr.
To go to or live in the country.

v.tr.
1. To send to the country.

2.
 siding that screams Home Depot in unexpected (and hard to take) shades of sea foam, lime green, sunshine yellow, and mud brown. With its pulsating plastic palette and the comic dimension of mishap, it's distinctly cartoonish; yet its simplicity is provocative. I found myself thinking of other huts, sheds, rooms, and corridors previously encountered in galleries and museums. Vito Acconci's crazy-house sculptures, so seriously askew they promise vertiginous ver·tig·i·nous
adj.
1. Affected by vertigo; dizzy.

2. Tending to produce vertigo.


vertiginous adjective Related to vertigo, dizzy
 thrills to those who take up the invitation to climb inside, came to mind. So did Bruce Nauman's bare-bones shacks, like Floating Room: Lit from Inside, 1972, constructed from wallboard and two-by-fours. By comparison, Martinez's cabin is decidedly folkloric and draws us into another sort of name game.

I had a sneaking suspicion that this might be the house that Ted Kaczynski built. Otherwise known as the "Unabomber," Kaczynski waged a terror campaign against corporate America from a tiny one-room cabin in Montana and, briefly, from the pages of the New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of
 Times, which published excerpts from his anarchist manifesto as a means to aid in his capture. In The House America Built, one folk hero deserves another. It's no surprise to discover from the press release that, indeed, this is a replica (of sorts) of Kaczynski's hideout. What's more, Martinez has given Ted a mate--none other than Martha Stewart, whose K-Mart line of house paints "brightens up" the ersatz er·satz  
adj.
Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial: ersatz coffee made mostly of chicory. See Synonyms at artificial.
 dwelling. Could this be an episode on Martha's upcoming reality TV show? Both folk heroes are homebodies Homebodies is the third episode from the of the popular American forensic crime drama , which is set in Las Vegas, Nevada. Plot Summary
Grissom and Warrick investigate when the mummified remains of an old woman are found in a closet.
, both are skilled craftsmen, and both are felons. Martha makes Ted clean up his act: They could be America's favorite new "odd couple," and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz Wizard of Oz

reaches and departs from Oz in circus balloon. [Children’s Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]

See : Ballooning


Wizard of Oz

false wizard takes up residence in Emerald City. [Am. Lit.
 could be their daughter. After all, it was little Dot's shack that was rooted up from Kansas, blown through the air, and crash-landed by the yellow brick road.

Still, I resist Martinez's intention to animate his symbol-laden sculpture with a sociopolitical so·ci·o·po·li·ti·cal  
adj.
Involving both social and political factors.


sociopolitical
Adjective

of or involving political and social factors
 critique wrought from the ideological strategies and struggles of a self-proclaimed anarchist and a professional lifestyle diva: Their pairing is worthy of a skit on Saturday Night Live This article is about the American television series. For the show related to Big Brother (UK), see Saturday Night Live (UK).

Saturday Night Live (SNL
. The artist's cleverness not with standing, The House America Built exhibits the polished air of academic political art. Mix one part irony, one part social conscience; hotwire to extraordinary-looking object; infuse with jumbled historical narrative; and there you have it: smart art that aims to please, earnestly wisecracking about the corruption of the culture and, yet, above it all, too.
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No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
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Title Annotation:NEW YORK
Author:Avgikos, Jan
Publication:Artforum International
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Nov 1, 2004
Words:564
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