Bodies, Buckets and Transcendence | 2022
Performance as research, making as thinking.
Role
Concept Development & Ideation, Collaborator, Creative Direction, Designer, Performer
Photographed by The Sisters Elefterin
Performance as research, making as thinking.
Role
Concept Development & Ideation, Collaborator, Creative Direction, Designer, Performer
Photographed by The Sisters Elefterin
At the crack of dawn, with a bucket in hand, I began to walk in search of water and in search for myself. Once I found water and the bucket was full I became intimately aware of the physicality of my pilgrimage; the weight of the water, the edges of the bucket, and my body as it held the heaviness. Through this project, I explore the codependent relationship between body and tool, melding one into the other.
SEARCHING FOR WATER
Where does the water in my tap come from?
Can I wander towards the source of life,
Can I wander towards the source of life,
Will it call for me?
I will go on a Pilgrimage
In my place of home, across the ocean, men and women embark on a pilgrimage to the holy rivers of India. Here, the water body is thought of as a site for birth, death and eventually rebirth. As I try to cleanse my spirit, I also search for water, and in the process hope to find myself.
‘
From across the pond
Can I find my way back home?
MAKING BUCKETS
FOR THE SOUL
MAKING BUCKETS
FOR THE SOUL
Casting the bucket
Casting my Body
mapping where my body meets the bucket
Placing the body through the bucket
BODIES
BUCKETS
TRANSCENDING
BUCKETS
TRANSCENDING
To Allan Wexler,
Thank you for your poetry, it allowed me to tell my own story.
[ Research under the Guidance of Allan Wexler, Designer + Architect ]
Thank you for your poetry, it allowed me to tell my own story.
[ Research under the Guidance of Allan Wexler, Designer + Architect ]
The Reclamation Chair | 2021
Research informs Making
Role
Designer, Creative Direction, Critical Thinker, Story Teller
Research informs Making
Role
Designer, Creative Direction, Critical Thinker, Story Teller
When asked to design a chair, Natalia Fernandez and I began to contemplate the iconography and implicit power structures of the chairs around us. The reclamation chair is an introspective look at how we might contended with the many violences with our institutions.
CONTEXT
Parsons School of Design
The Bellini Chair is commonplace within the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons School of Design. It is present in our classrooms and our studios, wedged inbetween us and our education. The Bellini Chair, for us, embodies the undercurrent of discomfort often hidden beneath the sleek facade of ‘good design’.
Room 201, School of Constructed Environments
Parson School of Design, New York, NY
Furniture Design
The female body, in the history of furniture design, has often been a site of fetishization and fantasy. Half naked and spread across his sofa, Mario Bellini turns the body of a woman into a fantasy about his couch. Here the model and the couch serve the same purpose, placeholders for male sexual desire.
Questions we asked ourselves
What does it mean to be asked to sit uncomfortably?
What is the extended touch of the designer?
What are the values of our constructed environment?
Do they serve us?
MAKING SPACE
Forming a Relationship with a Chair
Inspired by 100 ways of Sitting by Ari Elefterin, we began to have a conversation with a chair. Fitting out bodies into and out of the structures of the chair,
Inspired by 100 ways of Sitting by Ari Elefterin, we began to have a conversation with a chair. Fitting out bodies into and out of the structures of the chair,
Contending with the Chair
With immense gratitude to Gregory Beson for creating endless space for our rebellion, and to Ari Eleftering for adding gravity to our rage, creativity and hope.
Collaboration with:
Natalia Fernandez, Maker & Dancer
Credits:
Joyce Xu, Photo Assist
Natalia Fernandez, Photo Assist
Collaboration with:
Natalia Fernandez, Maker & Dancer
Credits:
Joyce Xu, Photo Assist
Natalia Fernandez, Photo Assist