Window Treatment model for 25 E 13th ST, 2020
caramel and sugar pearls
The choice to use sugar was both practical and conceptual. Sugar is a malleable, fragile substance that comes in many different forms: hard sugar granules, powder, liquid, paste, blocks, .. the list goes on. My initial idea was to create a curtain treatment made of long strands and beads. I didn’t want to buy any material - I like the challenge of working with what I already have - so I used sugar pearls which were the perfect size and shape. They also had some reflective properties which was ideal for this project which was all about creating atmosphere through modification. In keeping with the sugar theme, I decided to test using caramel as the binding material for the sugar pearls. I liked how it turned out but I was confronted with the fragility of the caramel: it melts quickly once it is being handled and it is difficult to manipulate into precise shapes. Therefore, I did not end up making the window treatment for the physical model of the space. It remained an experiment.
As I went through trial and error with the physical model, I changed the design of the window treatment to look like a pane of bubbles appearing to have been captured from a sparkling drink (instead of the curtain). I liked the shape and aesthetic quality of the random amalgamation of spheres. It is light and whimsical but scale to the size of the actual window of the room, appears as a towering form. When the sun seeps through the negative space of the arrangement, beautiful circular shadows are cast on the northern and eastern walls of the room, as depicted in these drawings.
How interesting it is to create something fragile that is normally not supposed to be? If heat, pressure, or water come into contact with this window model, then it begins to change, morphing into something before eventually disappearing, becoming a pile of sugar on the ground. The element that was supposed to cover the window, to create interesting effects with light and shade, no longer is. Conceptually, I found this to be particularly interesting.
This material choice also works in continuity with some of my other work where I use food as a physical material to create, or conceptually as a guiding material.
