Repair Works

When Zittel first set up her studio on the south side of Williamsburg in the early 1990s, the local economy was in recession, and New York’s infrastructure was only just shaking off the effects of the city’s near bankruptcy in the late 1970s. Williamsburg was a post-industrial frontier, pockmarked with empty buildings and boarded up shops. Zittel recalls being overwhelmed by the decay. In California everything had been about progress and newness, but in New York buildings were being abandoned, rents were going down and nothing was being repaired. Zittel responded by collecting and repairing badly damaged objects found discarded in the street. By lavishing attention on the most abject of objects of discard, Zittel formulated a reproach to the ease with which society often casually discards objects with changes in style and fashion.