TENSION IN PUBLIC SPACE
Location: Fargo, North Dakota
Typology: Performance
Date: March 2019
Staircase Material: 3D Printed Material, Paint, Screws, Wood
Bondage Material: Elastic Bands, Metal Hinges, Thread, Wood
Garments Material: Elastic Bands, Polyester Sheer, Thread, Vinyl
The “Cultural Artefact” is an iconic project that every student is expected to create as part of their architectural design. My artefact soon becomes the architecture, it is architecture seen as a performance. Exploring the lost intimacy in public spaces, my artefact brings people back together in a surreal experiment that explores the tension in public spaces through a theatrical performance. To fully understand my architectural design and process, my cultural artefact creates the temporal quality and experiences that public space has the ability to do. I want to bring people together, expose the human in ways they might not be used to. A clear acrylic mask acts like a social barrier, preventing the touch of skin that the average commuter is scared of. Similar to the smudged, dirty glass windows of the subway care, where faces sleep uncomfortably as the train brings the passenger desired destination.
The stairs interpret the negotiation of our bodies with the given space. Moving up and down, constantly in a state of decent and ascent. A labyrinth that exists in the subways, encouraging the commuter to wander while still offering faster ways to travel. The constricting outfits reveal how the modern human feels in public space, naked. We are afraid to enter the public domain. When avoiding eye contact, how are we to gain a trust for the strangers around us? We simply can’t. We have a need to keep our individualism locked inside our privacy. We dare not show our true selves in public. We don’t experience individualism, but instead we feel anxiety. The constriction of my garments is intended to eroticize this anxiety, to play with this feeling.
