Second Year
Bachelor of Design with Honours, Majoring in Spatial Design
CoCA, Massey University, Wellington
2018
This brief called for a spatial intervention or installation within the Lambton Quay area of downtown Wellington that addressed an aspect of social ecology observed in that space.
The aim of this project is to create an experience that initiates discussion around the taboo topic of sexual harassment and violence in the workplace. A woman’s right to feel safe in her body and in her place of work is a contemporary extension of the original suffrage movement. Using material tactility, spatial confinement, and live model interventions, the project seeks to mimic the uncomfortable and difficult-to-navigate environments experienced by victims and survivors of sexual harassment.
A major part of the project's development involved experimenting with nylon women’s stockings. All of the final context "hero" images were created using a model I designed and manipulated in the studio. By “sketching” with the stockings themselves, I discovered how this iconic element of women’s workwear could be used to spatially represent the claustrophobic and unsettling feeling of unwanted attention, whether triggered by clothing, gender, or both.