And it’s not all fictional. There was the story a few years back about the woman whose
lover lived in the wardrobe, emerging one day to kill her husband and then in May this year there was the story of the Japanese man who found a
homeless woman had moved into a closet in his house.
Perhaps our tendency to treat the wardrobe as a miniaturised house is an archetypal fantasy of having a nice safe nest, a fantasy that also plays out in cubby houses, tree houses, tiny buildings and caravans, Japanese tea houses even. It’s a sort of fantasy we fall into easily
and maybe that’s why Sydney artist
Adam Norton‘s recent exhibition at
Gallery9 was so appealing. His wardrobe, adaptively reused as a sort of inner space capsule had all the necessities for a long term hide away from the world.
All bodily functions are catered for, there is storage for food and water, as well as cooking and washing facilities.
There is even a periscope so that you can check if the coast is clear before getting out and stretching your legs.
The reading is admittedly of the most survivalist type but this is where theory and practice are synthesised into an entire lifestyle, and the clock, notebook and paper allow you to document the experience as well, thus creating a complete loop of self referentiality, so to speak.
