Designed by Austrian-American architect R.M. Schindler in 1922 as a multi-family dwelling, an experiment in communal living, the Schindler House was designed to accommodate collective daily life as well as personalized areas for individual activity. Playing off this history, Rainbows, Sponges, Flies, and Spoons presents distinct bodies of work, each occupying its own space, completely separate yet strangely connected. The Spoons (1994), an early photographic lightbox depicting a circular arrangement of spoons; Hunga Tonga Rainbow (2016), presenting two photographs in which a rainbow is mirrored, creating a sense of artificial symmetry, a false whole; Proposal for the World’s Second-Tallest Building, a sculptural installation composed of ceramic sponge as a proposal for a new form of architecture; and Two Flies Staring at Each Other (on a Glass of Water) (2025), a meticulously fabricated sculptural vignette arranged in a perfect formation that would be nearly impossible to find in nature. Through subtle manipulations of familiar objects and images, the works produce moments of humor and estrangement while exploring questions of infrastructure, ecological interdependence, and collective perception.

Organized by Beth Stryker, MAK Center Director + Curator with Susan Sherrick, and support from Caroline Ellen Liou, MAK Center Residency Manager + Associate Curator.