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Straining Letters Into Noise

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Caroline Barry (she/her)

memorial chair (2022)maple, screen printed canvas cloth, cotton cord
Memorial chair is one of the first attempts I've made at combining my design practice with my craft and woodworking practice. I wanted to force myself to link the work I've made addressing family and paper ephemera and grief to something like making a piece of hardwood furniture. I'm interested in exploring the through line of labor that connects fine woodworking with the lengthy processes of scanning and digitizing ephemera and with the extensive caretaking that a family member often needs. The functional objects that we live alongside or the ones that my grandparents lived alongside store endless memories and immense sentimental value. In my work, I am honoring these objects, and I am honoring both the memories that I share with my family and the memories that preceded my own. I made a chair, simple enough in its form that it could be tucked under any kitchen table. The screenprint on the canvas depicts multiple scanned objects like ticket stubs and envelopes, objects my grandmother had kept from her time in high school and college.