EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University announced Aug. 30 that it will present Los Angeles-based artist Fritz Haeg's "Domestic Integrities" installation beginning this September in an auxiliary space in downtown East Lansing.
Following the Nov. 9 opening of the Broad MSU's new Zaha Hadid-designed building, the work will be on view in the education wing as one of the museum’s inaugural exhibitions.
"Domestic Integrities" explores local patterns and rituals of interior domestic landscapes — the ways in which local resources are harvested and brought into the home. The project is presented on a spirally stitched rug made of used and discarded textiles donated by people in the area. In this way, the project literally becomes an indexical record of the community that helps build it.
"Fritz Haeg's work is indicative of the programmatic vision for the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University," said Michael Rush, director of the Broad MSU. "'Domestic Integrities' involves the entire community, including our students, and allows us, through the lens of the artist, to examine our local resources and how we consume them."
Production of the rug will begin Sept. 9 in downtown East Lansing at 333 East Grand River Ave., a former Barnes & Noble space, in collaboration with several MSU partners, including the LBGT Resource Center, the Residential College of Arts and Humanities, the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment and the Student Organic Farm. The artist will work with these groups and other local participants to gather textiles and direct communal activities of crocheting and open discussions.
The finished rug will move into the museum, where it will become an interactive exhibition. Visitors and collaborating student groups will bring items they have cooked or produced from elements harvested or found in the area: gathered flowers, pickled vegetables, canned fruit, baked bread, and the like. Visitors will be invited to sit down on the rug and inspect, taste and smell that day's "Domestic Integrities."
Domestic Integrities is organized at the Broad MSU by Alison Gass, curator of contemporary art, and Aimee Shapiro, director of education. Named a "Domestic Integrity Field" by the artist, the project will move next to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, expanding as it travels.
Haeg's work has included gardens, public dances, educational environments, domestic gatherings, urban parades, temporary encampments, videos, and publications. His recent projects include Edible Estates, an international series of public edible gardens; Animal Estates, a housing initiative for native wildlife in cities around the world that debuted at the 2008 Whitney Biennial; and Sundown Schoolhouse, an itinerant educational program that evolved out of the Sundown Salon gatherings at Haeg’s geodesic home in L.A.
Haeg studied architecture at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia in Italy, and at Carnegie Mellon University. He has taught architecture, design, and fine art programs at Princeton University, California Institute of the Arts, Art Center College of Design, Parsons School of Design, the University of Southern California, and Wayne State University in Detroit as the Elaine L. Jacob Chair in Visual Art visiting professor for fall 2012. Haeg is also one of the first artists to receive the Land Grant Residency from the Broad Art Museum at MSU.
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Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, a new Zaha Hadid-designed contemporary art museum at Michigan State University, is dedicated to exploring global contemporary culture and ideas through art. Opening Nov. 9, the dynamic 46,000-square-foot museum will serve as both a teaching institution and a cultural hub for East Lansing and the region. The museum is named in honor of Eli and Edythe Broad, longtime supporters of the university who provided the lead gift of $28 million.
For more information, visit broadmuseum.msu.edu/.
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Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.