Designed for Leisure, Sarah Ross’ ‘Archisuits’ Question the Inhospitable Environments of American Cities
Categories: Art | Design and Architecture | Society | World
By Vika https://pictolic.com/article/designed-for-leisure-sarah-ross-archisuits-question-the-inhospitable-environments-of-american-cities.htmlAmong American cities, Los Angeles has a reputation for being particularly car-centric, and it lacks the infrastructure for walkability or a robust public transit system. This choice of design is inherently political, as it makes commutes and travel across neighborhoods more inaccessible for people who don’t drive.
There’s also the fact that public spaces available to pedestrians generally aren’t constructed with comfort in mind, an issue Chicago-based artist Sarah Ross sought to remedy back in 2005 with the satirical Archisuits. Absurdly shaped, Ross’s four leisurewear pieces bulge with supports that perfectly fit into the negative space of benches, fences, and building facades. The designs draw a contrast between the soft, bendable wearables and the cold, rigid architecture, which the artist describes as “an arm of the law, a form that uses the built environment to police and control raced, classed, and gendered bodies.”
Nearly twenty years later, the project retains its original relevance and has gained new urgency as the climate crisis requires a mass reduction in car use and an overhaul in how we collectively conceive of public areas. Ross shares with Colossal:
The same issues are happening where people are criminalized for being poor, black, brown, or disabled in public spaces. In many places around the globe, there is a turn to the right a monopoly of power is concentrated in the hands of the very few. We continue to live in siloed, segregated worlds.
Find more of the artist’s projects that consider how politics inform spaces on her site
5 PHOTOS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Keywords: Archisuits | Designs | Interesting designs | Artworks | People | Public transit system
Post News ArticleRecent articles
It is unlikely that the owners of cats recognized that in the presence of a furry pet, they are transformed. Otherwise it can not ...
Ironing is one of the important, though not always pleasant household chores that you need to do if you don't want to look like you ...
Related articles
I'm Yuri aka the mother of BB. BB is gender-free, age-free, and race-free. BB and I always aim to spread more love, sweetness, and ...
Looking up at the sky and finding shapes in the clouds is a classic pastime, but Markus Einspannier, an artist from Germany, has ...
The Chamber of Commerce, or CDC (Chambre du Commerce - French), was Antwerp's stock market, first opening in 1531. At the end of ...
January 21 is a special day, which is dedicated to one of the warmest and most sincere manifestations of love and friendship - ...