Residency Project

“In 2018, I randomly visited a Cistercian abbey in the village of Ligugé in France. It made a great impression on me, from the architecture to the furnishing to the daily lives of the monks. I then began to study Cistercian history and went on retreats in abbeys in various parts of France to experience the monk’s way of life. I eventually designed a range of objects that transmit the heritage of the Cistercian in our times: making do with little, building to last, living amongst nature, being attentive to our surroundings, contemplation...

This experience convinced me that one should not make a clean break with the past but rather start from the existing to design relevant objects. The challenge is not so much to dig up forgotten forms as to reuse them in a contemporary setting.
Exploring New-York and Brooklyn for almost two months, visiting landmarks and digging into online archives, I came across little stories, details and anecdotes that struck me. Parallel to the History, they build out a common narrative rooted in everyday life.

Taking advantage of being “passing through” , I caught up some of these stories. They became starting points for proposing objects that embody them and pay tribute to them. The rough paper models, quick sketches and iPhone photographs on show testify of these researches at a very early stage are. Everything is still to be defined.

• The vase is made of Tulip Poplar, also called whitewood or yellow poplar. The Lenape word for Tulip Poplar is Muxulhemenshi, meaning “tree from which canoes are made”. In 1626, the Dutch “purchased” Manhattan to the locals Lenape for 24$. But the Lenape won’t remove from Manahatta, arguing that they had only sold the grass on the land, not the land itself. At the exact same time the Netherlands fell in love with the very fashionable tulip and entered what we call now the Tulip Mania period.

• The mirror drawn its inspiration from the Sunset Park neighbourhood. From fences to buffer, from mailbox to
  outdoor furniture, every possible object seems to have its shiny chromed metal model. In the book Indian givers, anthropologist Jack Weatherford enumerates what the world owes to Natives American in disciplines as broadly as medecines, food or politics. One thing Locals did not know at the time is metal work; and Weatherford shows how the knowledges of metal have been crucial for the European to defeat the Natives. Whether or not this story is related to the passion for shiny metal of today, the mirror attempts to make this material attractive and warm enough to be welcomed into interiors. It seeks to use chrome for its very first quality: reflection.

• The candleholder is out of red clay, the kind used to make the bricks so typical from Brooklyn. Back in the beginning of the Dutch settlement, bricks were luxury goods, not because of a lack of base material, but because of a lack of skilled craftmen and absence of industry. They were no brick maker in the area at the time, so the precious cubes had to be shipped from Europe. Visiting the early XVIII century Vander Ende-Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, I felt impressed by the fireplace, first because it was built out of European bricks, second because the rest of the house was made of stone. Thus, the luxury of the house is in its chimney, hidden in the basement. I found it beautiful, and sought to give shape to it designing a candleholder. “