Domesticated

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Flyer for the Domesticated gallery. A person is getting their picture taken on a mobile phone. Next to him is a wooden chair with a bar on top and pieces of metal under the seat and cream and orange lamp on wheels

Domesticated is an enquiry into the omnipresent social engagement in bodily practices of self-improvement, since training facilities for all ages have become familiar sites in peoples’ homes, as well as in contemporary urban public spaces

Domesticated - the exhibition - examines everyday experiences that individuals perform in order to deal with bodily deficits and aesthetic desires through a series of furniture-scale objects and interactive devices. These exhibited artefacts can be tested and played with and nurture an underlying critical debate on the collective aspiration for self-domestication.

The process of making the artefacts includes the appropriation of technical skills from plastic surgery, upholstery and cabinet-making. Planning the display installation in order to foster interactions involved building a scaled 1:20 model of the exhibition space and testing 1:1 prototypes with volunteers. Sighting specialised literature and triggering conversations with heterodox groups took place to better understand the popularity of such phenomena. For the Cabinet piece a collaboration with the artist Lilian Mattuschka was established in order to avoid a purely male perspective on a gendered design issue and co-design the shapes for the Labia works.

Domesticated opened at Gallery Marsden Woo, where the public interacted with the works and was confronted to the factual, fictional and ethical dimensions of the subject. The exhibition provided further insights out of conversations and user experiences that took place on site. An exhibition review was published by contemporary art magazine 'this is tomorrow'.

Several artefacts from Domesticated became part the group exhibition 'Together' at the Art Pavillon Munich, 08-12 March 2017. On display was 'Workout IV' (chair) and seven Labia plates from the Cabinet of Norms & Choices.

A room from the  Domestication project. Pieces are distributed around a white room
Zellweger cabinet of norms and choices
The 'domestic confrontation' piece from the Domestication project
Workout III piece from the Domestication project
Zellweger's Research Commons piece from the Domestication project
A piece from the domestication project. A two sets of antlers are mounted on the wall with an orange rectangular cushion attached. A man is looking at one and a woman is resting her forehead on another
A piece from the Domestication project. Two orange, leather, buttoned, mound-shaped pieces of furniture on the ground with a woman standing behind them
Chair of choices piece from the Domestication project
A man sits in the one of the chair of choices
Two woman and a man sit in the chair of choices from the Domestication project
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Explore the people, research centres and partner organisations behind this project.

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Research team

Christoph Zellweger

Professor Christoph Zellweger

Professor of Art and Design

Christoph Zellweger's profile