SPECIAL PROJECTS
Our design work was always driven by curiosity and investigation.Which meant that we were often in residence or working with others to develop new work.
WASSIAC PROJECT, 2022: Tokens of Belonging
Community mural project on an old molasses tank in Wassaic NY.
Continuing our interest in community and the objects that represent us, our mural at Wassaic Project focused on the theme of belonging and how people define this through the experiences and objects around them. The tokens dangling from the uprooted plants in this patterned mural are taken from shadow prints of objects brought in by Wassaic residents. The stories that were shared as the prints were made formed a bond at that moment. The images are tokens and remembrances of the belonging we all hope to find in our lives. Others made contributions through a Q&A prompt via postcards and flyers posted in the area.
2022 Summer Exhibition - Wassaic Project
WINTERTHUR TRANSFORMATION LOUNGE PROJECT, 2020-21
Research Fellowship, workshops, interior lounge redesign & mural. Wallpaper NYCxDesign prize runner up.
We spent several weeks in residence as part of a fellowship in 2020, then in 2021 we were invited to transform one of the exhibition lounges. We painted a mural, two benches, made two lamps, and a series of hand carved sculptural printing blocks. In the lounge, usually furnished in a modern style, Hall painted a folk-art mural of the Winterthur landscape with depictions of Canada geese, blossoming tree limbs, leaves, twigs, and other objects that found their way into their sketchbooks and photo library while they wandered the grounds. Hardison decorated the shelves with woodblocks carved with similar natural imagery to acknowledge their work as printmakers.
CENTER FOR EMERGING VISUAL ARTISTS, CORTLAND SENIOR CENTER 2020-2022
New Courtland Fellowship with CFEVA to run a series of workshops with senior citizens and students about memory & images over the pandemic to create a wallpaper of remembrance.
We have worked collaboratively with some amazing seniors and home school kids from the Philadelphia area to design and draw a range of new wallpapers and prints for 2022. We spent our lockdown winter online learning printmaking and drawing techniques so that we could share with you our memories and stories of growing up with wallpaper and objects that remind us of home. The collaborative wallpaper launched in 2022.
SOUTH PHILLY BULLETIN BOARD MURAL, 2019-21
Community project with Mural Arts Philadelphia to co-create neighborhood mural.
One of our primary interests is in home and community and how we navigate the public and private worlds. We believe decorative objects are an important tool for communicating how we as a society believe things are organized and celebrated. Through this project we hope to push the ideas we explore for the inside of the home to the outside of a building, telling stories from our city in the mural we create. For this project, we asked neighbors and community members to suggest which items belonged in this pattern. We hoped to learn what symbols or memories people wanted to represent their neighborhood. With that in mind, we created a pattern that we hoped would start to create new stories and memories for the kids that play in this rec center every day.
JOHNS HOPKINS EXTREME MATERIALS INSTITUTE, 2018: Scratch-Off Interactive Exhibition
Johns Hopkins Extreme Material Institute Artist in Residence, printmaking workshop, interactive gallery installation, Sheridan Galleries.
The Curse of Dimensionality, an interactive pattern installation, installed on six foot high walls at Sheridan Q Gallery at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD. Kim was in residence with a team of civil engineering researchers exploring randomness and non-uniformity in non-homogenous materials and was interested in the connections in the language used among the scientists. Hopkins pattern wallpaper (before scratch off coating applied), Split Fountain cotton/voile curtains, and wallpaper with scratch-off coating in situ, 2018.
RAIR PHILLY, 2017-18
RAIR artist in residence, paintings, domino wallpaper and fine art prints. Launched at Architectural Digest Design Fair, NYC
This collection of prints came about through our residency at a recycling center, and it's inspired by the lives we found sifting through the things people throw away. The items we found were often recognizably from one person, and represented strange and sometimes deeply personal artifacts of a life. The objects we selected were by no means meant to communicate who that particular person was, but rather to give us a glimpse into who each of us might be based on the things we leave behind. By drawing the discarded bits of everyday life our intention was to bring them back into the home and to reconsider what should be kept or lost and how the objects we select for our houses makes them home. Designed to reflect early wallpapers, called domino papers, these are repeatable wallpaper tiles as well as stand alone prints. The 8 designs are hand-painted and printed and the patterns are carefully engineered to stand individually as fine art prints. They debuted at Architectural Digest Design Show in New York in 2018.