Boy! What a surprise! Who'd have thunk that so ultra-contempo a bunch of prison-designing architects as Agence Sauer Kraut would reference a piece of middle-brow Americana kitsch in one of their publicity pieces?
This is, of course, their prize-winning (they got Miss Congeniality, and an honorable mention for their effort in the talent portion of the contest, when they tap-danced while playing the glockenspiel simultaneously) attempt at student-warehousing. And how intriguing that they would insert the pathos-inspiring crippled chick from Andrew Wyeth's widely-reproduced, widely-despised "Christina's World." Were they suggesting an arched-eyebrow irony by juxtaposing the American maiden crawling through the corn? And that French girl gazing blithely on? What does she signify? Is she about to finish her sandwich, get up and finish Christina off, so that she can have their miserly-sized dorm-cell all to herself? What could these sadomasochistic architecturally-astute jail-wardens be hinting at? What kinky fantasies lurk behind those double-glazed windows, inside a structure that was clearly intended to be every bit as sexually-inspiring as the campus at UC-Irvine? It's all a bit Hitchcock, isn't it?
