STYLE : INTERIORS : Artful Lodger
When Merry Norris first walked through the door of the sleek Hollywood Hills house, she knew she’d found the perfect spot. “I always dreamed of living in a light-filled space that was contemporary in design,” says Norris. But more than a place to call home, Norris, who serves as a director on the boards of several art and architecture institutions, was really looking for just the right backdrop for her collection of paintings, sculpture and installation art. As a consultant to others for the past 15 years, Norris has satisfied her own passion for art by supporting and buying the work of young local artists.
Inspired by Norris’ wish for a home-and-art-space in one, designer Barbara Barry helped select a tranquil palette of parchment hues, with accents of bronze and textured fabrics against Italian sandstone floors. The house recalls a villa, with floor-to-ceiling windows that open--and in pleasant weather rarely close--onto the azure swimming pool. Large and airy, with soft, tailored sofas, the space invites gracious entertaining as well as serious loafing. But for Norris, who rarely sits still, the home’s raison d’etre is still the art.
The house clicks, ticks, bulges and swings with it. The sculpture “Tony (Vulcanized)”by Alison Saar, carved from a single tree trunk and covered with braided bicycle inner tubes, stands menacingly in a doorway. But a door in his chest opens to reveal a heart of gold leaf. Then there’s a video screen near the foyer showing a continuous tape of artist Ann Hamilton rolling stones in her mouth--with the appropriate sounds emanating. Another installation piece, “Four Phasing” by Michael Brewster, consists of four red magnets attached to the dining room walls. Remove the magnets and tiny concealed speakers produce staccato, castanet-like clicking sounds, as if the walls were having a lively conversation. And from the living room, which faces the pool, Norris can view one of her favorite pieces. A Jenny Holzer marble bench, “Selections from TRUISMS,” is covered with inscribed phrases, one of which might be a credo for Norris’ home: “All things are delicately interconnected.”
While some of her collection goes out periodically on loan, one work that stays put is her site-specific back yard installation “Pine Needles Reliquary.” “The house is built in a mini-pine grove, and I am constantly deluged by falling pine cones and needles. It was impossible to grow a garden here.” She asked artist David Kremers to compose what looks like a modern archeological ruin out of six steel sculptures, designed by the Santa Monica architectural firm Morphosis. Resembling a partially unearthed pyramid with steps on one side, it has become an artful outdoor shrine. Norris regularly rakes the fallen pine needles and tends the ground as if it were a living garden. “It brings me quietude in my otherwise hectic life,” she says. And what do her dinner guests think? Says Norris with a laugh, “People mostly stand there and wonder.”