Abstract:
My practice is concerned with the social implications of art and design. Subtle pragmatic shifts in design effect the way we live. Function is of primary importance to design and at the same time understanding our lived experience of objects provides us with a measure for our lives. Art is often thought of as not having functional properties but this ignores, at the least, its social effects. An acknowledgment that art is practical and essential helps ensure that this aspect of culture represents more than simply a priveledged point of view. If art has a social function then its existence owes much less to the fact it can also be understood as a kind of surplus or excess. By taking design as a subject for art I hope to indicate aesthetics are important to us as a society. Brutalist architecture from the 1950 & 1960s is typified by the use of exposed structure which was intended to indicate honesty and integrity. The style of Brutalists block-like fortress forms were about rebuilding. They represented stability and strength in the period of necessity that followed World War II. My interest in this era stems from a curiosity about the space between a legitmate seeming theory and its application. I am interested in how design fails when it operates generically, an irony given its ambition to prove itself transferrable and repeatable. I use designs formal properties to explore how objects function in an aesthetic sense, particularly within our domestic and architectural environments, and how this affects our quality of living. In looking at these properties, I am questioning functionality, utility and necessity – thinking about the ties between visual and spatial engagement as a means of understanding how we navigate within and around objects that shape our existence. The use of objects with an aesthetic of domestic and historic familiarity (I have used plywood and shapes reminiscent of furniture and architecture, yet have not explicitly stated their use or function) provides room for a contemplative space to think more simply about the items we surround ourselves with and alternatively those that are designed for us. Each era possesses a vernacular that is closely tied with socio-political function that is often overlooked. In more recent years, design favours efficiency and mass production in the means of appealing to a wider audience. However by paying attention to the finer details and the fluidity of the lived experience we might be able to design and sustain a better future based on intricacies and customised individuals rather than the assumption of a generic human with generic wants and needs.