On going thesis exploration, 2023
My work promotes radical and queer political imaginations by making use of design's capability to quietly form the world around us. I do so by designing otherwise commonplace objects such as books, clothing, videos in a way that subverts the norm and creates room for alternative and numerous interpretations. Design greatly impacts our world through its ability to manipulate our visual landscapes (a tactic often used to support a conservative status quo), and I am fascinated by how often this is unquestioned or unnoticed by the larger public.
In the last few years, I have designed objects that recall an imagined future using readily available found materials. These objects include rubbings made with laser cut sandpaper that suggest fictional monuments, revolutionary banners sewn out of velvet curtains, and promotional materials for subversive feminist metal bands using low resolution stock images. These projects led me to my current inquiries into the production of myth and the power of the collective public. In my practice, I reveal how design informs what we believe to be true and how it visually reflects and preserves our time for future generations. Just as design connects people in the moment, and transports people back in time, it can also be used to imagine future worlds.
To invoke a sense of future potential and imagination, I create objects that suggest and invite a performance activated in the space between the object and its viewer. My design work resembles a theater performance in which the director, actors and crew create an imagined space that comes to life in the mind and through the reactions of the audience. I interrogate my own ongoing struggle between gaining and losing control over my work by allowing others into it. These performative objects that I make let me envision the work as bigger than myself. I want my work to create a sense of abundance, pleasure, and possibility in people who encounter and engage with it. I want my work to remind people of what may seem obvious, but is often overlooked: that the future lives in the now, as it’s built out of every present moment, rather than appearing someday on our doorstep fully formed. In our hands, we have the materials for building a radical future with deep solidarity for each other.
In the last few years, I have designed objects that recall an imagined future using readily available found materials. These objects include rubbings made with laser cut sandpaper that suggest fictional monuments, revolutionary banners sewn out of velvet curtains, and promotional materials for subversive feminist metal bands using low resolution stock images. These projects led me to my current inquiries into the production of myth and the power of the collective public. In my practice, I reveal how design informs what we believe to be true and how it visually reflects and preserves our time for future generations. Just as design connects people in the moment, and transports people back in time, it can also be used to imagine future worlds.
To invoke a sense of future potential and imagination, I create objects that suggest and invite a performance activated in the space between the object and its viewer. My design work resembles a theater performance in which the director, actors and crew create an imagined space that comes to life in the mind and through the reactions of the audience. I interrogate my own ongoing struggle between gaining and losing control over my work by allowing others into it. These performative objects that I make let me envision the work as bigger than myself. I want my work to create a sense of abundance, pleasure, and possibility in people who encounter and engage with it. I want my work to remind people of what may seem obvious, but is often overlooked: that the future lives in the now, as it’s built out of every present moment, rather than appearing someday on our doorstep fully formed. In our hands, we have the materials for building a radical future with deep solidarity for each other.