I'm spending a few hours today researching artists that have used the gallery space as a living environment as opposed to a place for showing stuff. One of my stops was spent looking at the work of Buenos Aires-born, NY-based, artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. In the early 90's he would turn galleries into living kitchens and cook Thai food for visitors. Since then, he created installations that offered special places for people either to play, read, eat or rest. Really cool stuff. Follow this link for an article by Jerry Saltz. It's totally on-point.
From top to bottom: Untitled, Still (1992); Untitled, the raw and the cooked (2002, photo: Kioku Keizo); La salle de jeux (1998, photo: Florian Kleinefenn); East Village Apartment [replica] (2009).
