Dressed Up and Pinned
DATE | 2016
LOCATION |Arlington, VA
MEDIUM |fabricated steel and automotive finish
DIMENSIONS |87" x 188" x 96"
In the permanent public art collection of Arlington, VA
Project Goals:
Provide a visual as well as a functional amenity for hotel guests and pedestrian commuters who live in the neighborhood, Lion Village, behind the Hotel. As the selected spot was right in front of a drop off-pick up zone a bench seemed like the natural functional form to use.
Description:
Name: Dressed up and Pinned
This functional sculpture is based on the forms of fashion and materials of automotive design. It features a stiletto high heel and a “drapery” section whose folds make up the functional shape of the bench as well as wrap around the architectural faced of the Hyatt building. As it wraps around it is pinned to the architecture with a large bolted metal bar. The remaining material ends in a flourish as if wind or the motion akin to the edge of a dancer’s skirt has formed it. This part exists in a triangular negative space between the two slabs of the façade that is visible from a seating area in the lobby entrance of the hotel. The entire piece is stylistically designed to feel like the sculptural representations of movement in objects made in art deco and streamline design movements. The tension of the “drapery” being wrapped around the end of the façade of the building relates to, and supports, the vertical power of those forms. I chose an overall diagonal composition to echo and complement the form of the building as well. The goal of the piece is to make a fun, colorful and glamorous object the will enrich the visual life of local commuters as well as fit the mission of the boutique hotel it calls home, all while providing a functional component that makes the guests and community an opportunity to become a part of the sculptural energy of the piece.
Inspiration:
I’m an independent designer-maker of furniture with a research-based process. In specific, I have drawn great influence from the history of transportation, its infrastructure and vehicles. The design for 2401 Wilson Boulevard is born of one of my ongoing series, Anchored Candy, with a new twist that is intimately tied to my time here in the Arlington/DC area.
For some time now, I’ve drawn inspiration from the history and culture of cars. The Anchored Candy series is inspired by fashion and hotrods. They are benches that counterbalance bright automotive finishes and anthropomorphic sheet metal forms with raw blocks of steel. It is furniture simultaneously about desire and structure. Increasingly, and stemming from this work, I have been incorporating ideas of speed and motion in my designs. In pieces such as Streamline Bench, used in this presentation as the example of construction, I am specifically looking at the streamline design movement in the 1930s, which lead to the new twist on this series of work.
I’ve spent the past two months as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Air and Space (NASM) museum and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center researching the design history of American aeronautics, with special reference to the technical and cultural notions that have influenced the changing appearance of airplanes and the concept of speed over time. The research stemmed from my interest in streamline design, Art Deco, and the modern “machine age” aesthetic in industrial design.
Through the trophy designs that represented achievement in the golden age of flight I started to think speed and tension represented in the motion of sculptural drapery. I had the opportunity to also use the National Gallery’s collection to study sculptors such as Paul Manship that worked in the Art Deco and streamline design periods. This drapery as physical manifestation of motion also lands directly in between the fashion and hotrod associations in my previous, and in this, work. As it was jokingly stated in the design meetings, “it’s all about fashion and commuting!”
By chance, the design schedule of this piece was during my fellowship and I took an apartment in Arlington for this period of time. This gave me the chance to get to know Arlington and work closely with the Schupp team. Finding Art Deco to be so well represented and consciously preserved in Arlington only made the choice of using it as a rubric for my visual research more apt. The final design is truly in collaboration with the Scupp team and my fellowship experience here. Their desire for a true sculptural statement, interaction with the Arlington area and access to the Smithsonian collection all lead me to expand the Anchored Candy idea into a completely new territory where the form is anchored by the building itself.
Artistic intent:
The balance between the functional and aesthetic/decorative/sculptural has always been a tension in seating. From an iron throne to a lazy boy there are many variations on this tension. In my view, seating objects fall on a spectrum from ergonomics to play and from public performance to personal interaction. They can act as powerful characters as well as a stage for our own performances.
The name is both a literal description of the motion and a playful reference to fashion, femininity, the pin-up and functional things whose real job is to make us feel attractive, glamorous and powerful.
The goal with this piece is to make something visually stunning, durable, and comfortable. Although the functional seating section will only be a fourth of the overall size, by physically interacting with Dressed up and Pinned guests and community members will have a reason to be a part of its overall beauty and glamor…leading to many selfies on vacation as well as locals saying, “I’ll meet you at the blue heel” or some such nickname that will come to dominate this corner of Wilson Boulevard.