intro

While working on my MFA Thesis, I started FOOL and FOOL Products as small side projects that have now developed enough to warrant their very own space. My art and design work, collaborative projects and writing will be posted here weekly, as well as the work of other artists, designers, craftspeople and writers that might be relevant.

My central inquiry relates to the divisions and relationships between art and design, sculpture and product. Perhaps the more fundamental exploration here is of human psychology and how cognitive and sensory judgment determines these often debated categories.

Something is called art rather than design because of its visual characteristics, or it is labeled because of what it does. In this experiment, I’m actively marketing art objects through the brand name FOOL, giving products attributes of art and imbuing fine art with the language of design.

Perhaps products can be used as gateways to activate psychological space, rather than just accommodating a set of tasks. In acknowledging the power of objects and products at a time when the value of things is increasingly challenged through art practices such as relational aesthetics, I am exploring the nature of attachment and our relationship to objects. Presenting a potentially unpopular viewpoint in the art world, this work questions if the goals artists seek to achieve within their work (such as communication and interactivity) are more accessible in the format of products. Can products trigger psychological reactions or communicate complex messages in the way that art attempts to? I intend for this to be a hybrid site open for discussion on these topics, so please join in!