How do objects exist within our lived spaces? Can objects embody the power imbalances of institution? Is it violent to design an uncomfortable chair? What does it mean to ask student to learn in a built environment that is in opposition to their bodies? What is the extended touch between the designer and the people interacting with their designs?
Natalia Fernandez and I began this project as an exploration into the power dynamics that exist in our constructed environment. 'The Reclamation Chair' is an inquiry into what it means to be a woman in a field that has historically been cis, white, and male. More broadly, it is an introspection of how we might contend with the many violences of our institutions.
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’. Through a meditative, cathartic and sometimes violent process of strapping, sewing, pleating, tying, draping and binding, Natalia and I reclaim the chair we are asked to sit on.
- - -
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.