The Burrow
Location
FA-152
Start Date
2-5-2025 11:40 AM
Department
Art + Design
Abstract
The Burrow is a series of large-scale interactive sculptures intended to offer a safe and comfortable space outside of the domestic sphere. These sculptures are colossal bulbous objects spilling out on to and offering viewers solace from highly-controlled architectural spaces. Viewers are invited to enter The Burrow and to move through it on hands and knees or other similarly animalistic postures. Crawling into these cocoon-like vessels, we are insulated from the external world and held by the objects, basked in a womb-like glow. Polyurethane foam is feminine in that it is both strong and soft. It is a fast working and unwieldy product that is hard to contain but also maintains gestural forms. It is manmade but explosive and wild, producing its own unpredictable organic shapes. These qualities mirror the chaos and calm of motherhood from pregnancy and birth to child-rearing. The chicken wire to which the foam is applied suggests a cube as its hexagons make the exterior lines of two-dimensionally drawn cubes. The hexagon, too, evokes images of beehives and their matriarchal builders. These material qualities and formal references swaddle viewers in security and contentment by eliciting quiet thoughts of mother.
Faculty Sponsor
Nate Mathews
The Burrow
FA-152
The Burrow is a series of large-scale interactive sculptures intended to offer a safe and comfortable space outside of the domestic sphere. These sculptures are colossal bulbous objects spilling out on to and offering viewers solace from highly-controlled architectural spaces. Viewers are invited to enter The Burrow and to move through it on hands and knees or other similarly animalistic postures. Crawling into these cocoon-like vessels, we are insulated from the external world and held by the objects, basked in a womb-like glow. Polyurethane foam is feminine in that it is both strong and soft. It is a fast working and unwieldy product that is hard to contain but also maintains gestural forms. It is manmade but explosive and wild, producing its own unpredictable organic shapes. These qualities mirror the chaos and calm of motherhood from pregnancy and birth to child-rearing. The chicken wire to which the foam is applied suggests a cube as its hexagons make the exterior lines of two-dimensionally drawn cubes. The hexagon, too, evokes images of beehives and their matriarchal builders. These material qualities and formal references swaddle viewers in security and contentment by eliciting quiet thoughts of mother.