2023—24 Howard E. LeFevre ’29 Emerging Practitioner Fellow Samiha Meem has published “Tiny packages, shiny houses, and the ceaseless project of desire are at the center of Nathan Fielder’s The Curse” in The Architect’s Newspaper. Meem’s article discusses the show’s use of architecture for constructing the self. 

The Curse finds strength in its metanarrative by employing architecture as its central reflexive device. This heading is first established in the opening shot: The camera moves toward an open window as we hear ex-con Fernando Castillo (Christopher Calderon) talking about his struggle to find work as his sick mother faces eviction. As we get closer, the Spiegels chime in dulcet tones to offer rent subsidies and employment at their coffee shop—snapping sharply to a more tensioned scene as Asher calls for the film crew to reset the frame. The cultural progression of the window, originating as a simple void for light and ventilation, transforms into a technological operation simulating connection through division—transparency with desire—in the incorporation of glass. The Curse considers this as a material and figurative trope very seriously, with the home becoming a machine for viewing and making the self. 

Read more at The Architect’s Newspaper