by Skye Ruozzi & Lysistrata Wong
Trust can only be woven over time by multiple parties. Like a tightly braided rope, it’s strong enough to lift many times its weight and endure stresses, but once frayed, the disintegration is swift.
Using locally found Beach grass, Bitter panic grass, and Switch grass (Ammophila brevigulata, Panicum amarum, Panicum virgatum), the artists wove a circle and danced a story of the vulnerability of trusting and the anguish of betrayal. Attendees were given bivalve shells collected from the beach that had small holes, indicating the mollusks inside had been killed and eaten by other predatory mollusks who had drilled through the shells with their radula.
Participants marked the shells with feelings they wished to release. When the waves came, they tossed and reformed the braided circle on the shore, before eventually carrying it all out to sea. Artists said prayers to the goddess Yemaya and offered the released emotions to the goddess Ceto.
Invoking the impermanence of memory and engaging the cycles of birth and loss that characterize New York’s physical as well as cultural landscapes, this event combined storytelling, ephemeral found object sculpture, collaborative art making, and sustainability in a series of interventions that culminated in a participatory public event.
The project solicited ten creators to submit stories about beloved lost objects, and to construct found object art dedicated to these items during a one-day event in Fort Tilden on August 7th, 2021.
photos by Walter Wlodarkczyk and Osmany Cabrera
DeForm ReForm experiments with power and precision of machinery using a six-axis robotic arm, to incrementally form copper sheeting into a structural building material. Viewers trace their fingertips along toolpath striations, leaving their alterations via skin oils providing a natural patina.
DeForm ReForm was a sculpture to explore the boundaries of what was possible when incrementally deforming copper to harden it into a structural building material.
Using a six-axis robot to stretch the copper panels, this experimental project coupled the precision and power of machinery with the whimsy of design.
As project manager for a team of six people, I generated the toolpaths for 31 unique copper panels, managed the files and labeling system, maintained the fabrication and construction schedule, and kept constant communication with the team.
"Unless Otherwise Posted" is a collaborative installation designed by Skye Ruozzi & Rose McShane for Shadow Traffic’s Alter/Altar tour.
This project occupies a structure traditionally used to separate people - the fence. Instead of dividing, the piece engages the fence as a platform for shared memories.
Passersby select from three color-coded categories of tags to answer the prompt "What do you miss about the neighborhood?" Visitors will inscribe the water-resistant cards with their reminiscences, and tie them to the fence. As the sharing increases, the cards and ribbons will grow across the fence, creating an abstract patterning or temporary collective reflection. We encourage participants to share their memories online.
chainlinkGREEN is a system of construction designed to realize urban gardens, shade canopies, parks, benches and other urban, social condensers using only materials common to an abandoned lot, including chainlink fencing, standard 90°, steel pipe, rubble, reclaimed lumber, and concrete debris. chainlinkGREEN’s distinct geometry and aesthetic is borne from three concerns: (a) to develop an efficient, 3-dimensional structural system using only the 90° angles common to chainlink fencing, (b) to realize a construction system that is simple to build without the aid of expensive tools or trained professionals, and (c) to offer an intensely elastic environment that is capable of accommodating the wide variety of programs, materials and uses needed by our urban environments. chainlinkGREEN’s lightweight, easily constructed structure, realized through a simple distortion of the common fence typology, offers great utility, elasticity, and beauty within a very simple palette – creating a work that is affordable, accessible and at home in most urban settings. From an environmental standpoint, the elasticity of chainlinkGREEN’s potential material and programmatic palette offers opportunities to create sustainable urban gardens, storm water retention systems and animal habitats using only discarded materials and sites.
chainlinkGREEN was one of the first built projects of Philadelphia's Green Citys, Clean Waters Initiative to add permeable surface to existing hardscape conditions in an effort to reduce stormwater runoff into the city's overtaxed combined sewer drainage system. The International Design Clinic team designed using materials found typically at one of Philadelphia's many vacant lots. I sourced all the materials, many of which were reclaimed. We diverted truckloads of concrete rubble from a neighborhood sidewalk reconstruction, and I personally visited dozens of local woodworking shops over several months to divert their wood scraps from the landfill. We led high school students and prison work-release participants through the construction process. Eight years later, it is still a site for congregating, which is a testament to its structural integrity and
usefulness.
photo by Keith Hartwig is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Designed and built with stainless steel fence posts and custom tension cables. Aquaponics by OKO Farms.
Occupying a portion of the courtyard to the carriage house of the Stuyvesant Mansion. This grand manor now hosts community organizations, acupuncture, and a local bakery, Bread Love.
The Greenhouse provides not only a place for growing
plants, but a space for the local community to mingle
and children to interact with agriculture and culinary
arts.
Inspired by a childhood puzzle toy, this scaled-up version was a surprise gift for my father, a mathematics fanatic. Living at Pollen Nation for the duration of Burning Man 2014, this installation allowed citizens to experience the possibilities of repeated geometry to generate form.
Gut renovation of a loft apartment at City Hall Park, New York. The 3,200sf loft was renovated from the ground up into a 3-bedroom, 3 1/2-bathroom apartment.
Architect / MuNYC architecture pllc, Brooklyn
Decorator / Maurice DoNoso, Edgewater
Contractor / GC Sterling, Pompton Lakes
Designed as a wedding gift, this oversize oversize chess set will live upstate on oversized chess board made by Yoko Ono. The teams are machine vs garden. Each piece is resin cast to contain corresponding pieces. The machine pieces are electrically illuminated.
A country home for two retired Brooklyn aesthetes. This home was carefully situated to sit lightly on the hillside while embracing the views. The design offers a sleek modern take on simple materials, while still fitting within the Homeowners’ Association’s Design Guidelines.
The Social Settee was born of opportunity. In possession of Harlequin laminated plywood that was previously a dance floor used on tour by an (to remain unnamed) international pop singer. We found the reflective nature compelling, and sought to marry the ideas of zero-gravity reclining, socialization, and modularity. These custom CNC-milled seats can be reconfigured to be arranged alone, in pairs, or as a continuous set.
The Dodecalume Quest is a scavenger hunt. Questers found 12 Lanterns, each depicting one Symbol of the 10 Principles of Burning Man (+Consent +Gratitude). Each Lantern portrayed a rhyming rumination about its Principle, and once read and opened granted the Quester the coordinating token. The tokens puzzle together to become a keepsake of the Quest.
The first Mantis was a hand-routed plywood sculpture built to test lighting effects. When a child at Thanksgiving dinner asked if she could paint a piece, the Mantis Garden was born. The Garden continued to grow over 2011-2016 and was installed in dozens of sites across the country. The Mantises were painted by over 7500 different sets of hands of all ages.
Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem. Investigationes demonstraverunt lectores legere me lius quod ii legunt saepius. Claritas est etiam processus dynamicus, qui sequitur mutationem consuetudium lectorum.
Mirum est notare quam littera gothica, quam nunc putamus parum claram, anteposuerit litterarum formas humanitatis per seacula quarta decima et quinta decima. Eodem modo typi, qui nunc nobis videntur parum clari, fiant sollemnes in futurum.
