Home Furnishings: Revisiting the Interior Spaces of Helen Chadwick's ‘Living Kitchen’
This article explores Helen Chadwick's early sculptural practice through an examination of In the Kitchen, 1977, which presented replica kitchen appliances that also figure as hybrid object/garments worn by female performers. It examines Chadwick's playful fashioning of the female body as a challenge to mediated constructions of the feminine in advertising and popular culture. This includes a contextualisation of her material and metaphorical critique of the spaces of the home in light of emerging feminist concerns of the 1970s. In order to further a retrospective understanding of the work, the article considers Chadwick's activation of sculptural couture, performative photography, animate sculpture and interior architecture to reflect on the shape-shifting identity of this singular work of art. The study of In the Kitchen calls for a renewed consideration within art historical and curatorial discourse in order to fully grasp the nature of the artist's self-directed sculptural experimentation.