Emma
van Noort

Christine’s Choreography at Museum the Lakenhal follows the research of Christine Frederick about household efficiency. It explores cleverly designed standardized kitchen walking routes to optimize household tasks so the housewife could spend her time elsewhere. Exploring ideas of this first wave feminist, I made an absurdist text that choreographed a route through my works. I combined modernist ideas about standardization from the book ‘Architects Data’ (1939) by Neufert with Christine Fredericks work ‘The New Housekeeping: Efficiency Studies in Home Management’ (1918).

Within this exhibition I brought two projects together: the Kiefhoek ptoject about architect J.J.P Oud and an earlier version of Christine’s Choreography in a Bruynzeel kitchen designed by Piet Zwart. I introduced a collection piece from museum de Lakenhal as a footnote to let the work resonate with their collection. The text presented is inspired by a publication of J.J.P Oud about social housing in the first print of magazine ‘de Stijl’ (1917).

‘ Christine followed the housewife every step she took, short and efficient. But she accidentally trapped the housewife in her web of motions when her domestic empire became ruled by Neufert’s law. Here they played by the rules of
Form
Follows
Function
and RAL 9010.

From then on it became a slippery slope of ‘one size fits all’ as we moved to the house as a machine for living. Hiding ourselves behind the glass curtain in the concrete promise of fluffy functionalism.

To hold a house, the housewife now had to adjust herself to a standardized world of straightforward thinking in primary colors and pale shades of
greenish-blue.

So, we ended up dancing  Christine’s Choreography in the sunlit concrete grid.’

Video by Frances Rompas

First publication ‘the Stijl’ 1917.
Tekst by J.J.P Oud about Social housing.
Collection piece from museum Lakenhal.