Twistedly Dandified
My larger work, being made up of mobile pseudo-architecture, fits into the genre of architectural intervention, which includes wonders as diverse as Barnum and Bailey’s Circus to the collective endeavors of Ant Farm. As the world continues to move into the built urban environment, and the current generation tries to find its place in the world, this field is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. My project, Twistedly Dandified, brings together ideas from formal sculpture, the automobile, playgrounds, the circus, and Robinson Crusoe.
Recently, I found a surplus supply of seatbelt webbing, and have been weaving this webbing at a modest scale. As a material, seatbelts are protective, strong, and colorful. When woven, this strapping not only creates simple textile patterning, but a large sturdy surface, allowing the viewer to climb and explore the object. I am proposing to create one, 120 foot long woven structure. The weaving will hang within a steel supper structure, “lollipops” made of thin walled piping bolted to existing architecture. This tube will provide an alien environment ripe for exploration, in which the viewer might return to a childhood curiosity and children can run wild.
Twistedly Dandified is a 120 foot long, colorful-tactile interactive object that will entice participation from the public. Taking on the role of an architectural intervention, to conceptually connect ‘high art’, architecture, playgrounds and participatory installations.