Still think that ebay "find" and punch of colour are a good idea? Think again. 
James Lileks's take on the hideous, Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s
Welcome back to Interior Desecrations, a brutal examination of the unlovely, unattractive, unlivable and unforgivable homes of the 1970s. All eras have some bad taste, of course – but it took the 70s to make bad taste triumphant and universal. It took the 70s to convince everyone to stick foil wallpaper on the wall, paint the bathtub purple, smother the floors in shag so deep it tickled the tops of your ankles, and hang art that managed to clash with everything, including itself. I mean, look at this picture – what is that? A dissected Rubiks’s Cube attempts to threaten a potted plant and his child, I guess.
Here we see the problem that bedevils most urban dwellers: what can I do to make my unbearably claustrophobic room seem even smaller? Even with the gigantic empty-staring 17th century moonhead there still seems to be a certain airy quality to the place.
I know! I can paint the window!
Sweet smokin’ Judas, what were they thinking?
Monday, 11 August 2008
Tell the truth and shame the devil
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9 comments:
Those rooms are just terrible, but your take on them was hilarious~wish you'd shown more and dissected each one again, as I have no intention of purchasing the book.
I often wonder what we will think in 20 years of what we do now. We think so much of what we do is in 'good taste' -but in 20 years we'll look back and be like 'all that stainless steel -ick -what were we thinking!'.
My Dear TB - surely it would be worth the $1.98, if only to send it on to one of today's Interior Desecrators ? I know of one in particular I would love to send it to, but he would probably use it for his next collection of tat.
And those aren't my words, those are the words of the author. The link goes to his site, where he dissects the hideousness.
BTC - I don't need to wait 20 years, I know already what I think. Boring and derivative. There I said it.
I think we think they're boring NOW though - there has to be SOMETHING that we'll think is atrocious. When you look at some rooms from the 60s and 70s that were meant to be 'recreations' or historical -they just looks gaudy and dated -now how people FELT they looked at the current time.
I'd lay money on that the attitudes of the time will, in retrospect, be found to be atrocious. This is the age where mediocrity and quantity has ruled.
"Gigantic empty-staring 17th century moonhead". Wonderful. Sounds like a record album title from the same era.
PT&E - ...Starship. If that moonhead is 17th century, I'm Susan B Anthony.
So, are we saying that I should NOT wallpaper my entire house with shiny foil wallpaper? DAMN YOU ALL!
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