feet in places

gloriously banal. relentless. grounded.

signifying city

things the city says, sometimes.

inflatable meeting space

the goal is to create an alternative and imaginative community meeting space.  the design adapts the existing double-membrane and ring-like form of a series of small, inflatable toy boats, which are strung together to create a row of windows for visibility and safety.  the row of repurposed boats also provides a set of exterior nozzles through which a group of nine people can (partially) inflate the structure at any given time.  community members will take turns breathing into the structure as it slowly but inevitably deflates over the length of a meeting.  it is architecture that requires unending and collective physical attention: the discussion taking place inside the temporary space can only continue unhindered by way of the consistent work taking place on the exterior of the structure.  the force of our breath sustains the architecture just as dialogue sustains community building.  it’s a bit of a failure-work-in-progress; made out of toy boats, duct tape, vinyl shower curtains, plastic tarp and emergency blankets.

 

scaffolding

one side is lined for the insertion of emergency contact information, to keep close at hand or to provide to others in the community.  the other side reads “scaffolding.”  scaffolding is a tangible support network that is always in the process of change or flux, a material set of connections erected by a group of people in order to build something broader.  it indicates holding up, carrying the weight of, supporting, sustaining.  these cards are intended to remind us of our support networks, encourage us to extend and sustain them.  they are a material indication of the people who are here for us.  part of the goal of this project was to consider the relationships between architecture and community building as necessarily ongoing, material processes.  letterpress on cardstock with folded photocopies in recycled envelopes, a collaboration with artnoose for safe southwest; distributed to doorsteps throughout saint henri, MTL, by the walking distance distro.

building a room from blocks, birds & rabbits

an animation made by the duo paper anklets (with megan schultz) for an exhibit curated by cynthia hammond and thomas strickland on the meeting of animals and architecture in books for children.  this animation explores the imaginative spaces created by children with building blocks.  the blocks stack up around a young girl and become a room, complete with a window, mounted antlers, picture frames and various small objects.  the space slowly becomes more fantastical as it fills up with birds and rabbits, until there’s no space left at all.

desire

a study in intimate air flow: i want to get close to the plastic, try to wrap my body around it, breathe through it.  i am testing the potential choreography of my body, as part of a changing relationship with another.  the closer i get, the more exhaustive the space between us becomes, the more the other grows from my voice, my lungs…until my body is rejected entirely, bouncing off.  stills from video.

one nite squat

this intervention was created both in response to the city’s controversial redevelopment plans for griffintown and in preparation for a more sustained attempt to create a grassroots community centre in the neighboring area of pointe-saint-charles.  in the course of one night over a hundred people came together to squat an abandoned CN control tower, enjoying each others company and setting out plans amidst a sea of candles and local bands.  we arranged the interior of the dilapidated tower beforehand to speak to the divide between private and public space, organizing the snow that had come through broken windows into patterns, covering the ceilings in branches and leaves, and painting images of window shadows in unexpected places and at impossible angles.