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Simone Schiefer
I use art and design as a tool to bridge social gaps.
Jug Enhancing does this symbolically by reducing a physical gap. Preexisting jugs are modified by adding a spout and handle to facilitate the manual act of passing and sharing.
Mask-Up! is a mask making experience designed to help understand the individual realities of informal day labourers available for hire outside a big-box home improvement store in Bed-Stuy, New York City. The aim being to share knowledge for the purpose of empathy building.
MASK-UP! is an experience designed for the purpose of public inquiry. It investigates the day laborers that utilize the parking lot, of a home improvement big box store, in Bedstuy, New York City, as an informal employment hub.
Gaining a broader understanding of this informal economy, not only informs us about the individuals themselves, but enlightens us about how this specific community functions on a social, economic level and the urban dynamics they create.
As the designer, artist maker I provided them with accessible tools, material and encouragement and gave them the freedom to play.
Mask making acts as a bridge to exploring their inner landscapes.
The final portraits where taken by Gabriela Molano Lamassonne
In Collaboration with:
![« [My mask is] not very smiley, because I have a problem with bipolar. I like you right now, but someone can say something and my whole demeanor can change immediately
and I get in a bad way. Pissed](https://res.cloudinary.com/rca2020/image/upload/f_webp,h_2400,w_1920,c_fill,g_auto,q_auto/v1/rca2022/62b1e7c1e957b3b7838c5684-401419?_a=AXAH4S10)
« [My mask is] not very smiley, because I have a problem with bipolar. I like you right now, but someone can say something and my whole demeanor can change immediately
and I get in a bad way. Pissed.»
« If you come here very clean, they don’t hire you because they think you don’t know how to work. But if you come very dirty, they don’t hire you because you look very dirty. »
« One of my eyes should be smaller than the other(...) around the time of Hurricane Katrina, a 2by4 fell onto one of my eyes and I lost my eyelid (...) I still come here, but the others call me stupid so it’s hard to get jobs.»
«I’m going to make a devil mask because I look like the devil, with red eyes. Red is the eye of marijuana. Weed is running away. Death is doing something.
(...)
This is like a mirror. I’ve done mirror therapy.
Looking at yourself through the reflection in the mirror. You see your face and you look different. The monster changes every day.
(...)
It's an hour of relax. I’m making the mouth like I’m a clown! » (Laughs)
(...)
Here is the reflection of solitude and sadness. » (referring to his mask)
In Collaboration with:
Jugs should have two handles
Jug enhancing is an ongoing project of one of a kind collaged ceramics. Existing jugs are cut and assembled to create objects with two handles and spouts.
In their untouched form, these vessels are awkward and difficult to pass from person to person, so my mission is to make this easier.
These modifications also give the possibility to use two hands for a better grip- when the jugs are full.
Symbolically, such added elements shift the object away from its history as an object of service.
I see them as tools for sharing to be used during convivial meals in good company when the table is large and the food is plentiful.