“An iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” Imagine Winston Churchill in his study. Behind him, just visible in the dim evening light, four brocade curtains stand immobilized by their own weight, blocking the windows from floor to ceiling. They hum, gently shimmering, and as Churchill contemplates the world to be, they momentarily transform into iron.
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Brogger represents social and political arrangements through decorative objects and furniture, and she knows she runs the risk that her audience will be seduced by the decorative aspects of her work and fail to respond to the subtle symbolism. But these are the forms that come naturally to her.
“Because of his business, the house had all kinds of furniture. The more formal rooms–the sitting rooms and master bedroom–had seriously carved, huge mahogany bedsteads, Louis XIV sitting-room furniture. The lower floor was more cottagelike and filled with mission style, Harvey Ellis, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Stickley–the Prairie School.”
The curtains line one wall of her installation at Rezak Gallery. Beyond them sits a group of three chairs. Also designed in sheet metal, their style and arrangement echo the status of their intended occupants–Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin–but Brogger positions the group peripherally, like the ghost of a memory.
