Brick by Brick was a two-week-long installation curated in response to the 9-piece collection by Tommy Hilfiger and Supervsn. The Nu American collection holds multiculturally charged energy that shines a light on the communities that texture American history. It calls for Nu creatives to design the world they wish to see. This collaborative collection locates the future Americans in a timeless homage to heritage, community, and history.
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Supervsn founder and creative director invited our studio to imagine what the new American creatives could be. We centered our creative research on the idea that the future Americans recreate the commons. In this research, we imagined the second room of the Supervsn brick-and-mortar store as a place where natural and fabricated materials are accessible to the local community with the collective benefit of rest, creativity, medical herbs, free books, and a calming environment. We wanted to explore with the Supervsn team what it would be like if all of the stores that opened in our Black neighborhoods offered items and space for free. In this exploration, we imagined this second space as a rehearsal for overlapping; the public access space of our parks, the creative collaboration of a studio, the unowned power of a vision, the comfort of a backyard, the leadership in a library, and the inspiration of the land.
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Imagined as an open-air participatory studio, reminiscent of Gavin Mathieu's childhood backyard, sitting at the top of Kenneth Hahn State Park, guests are invited to inhale a VSN for the community in their vista and exhale an idea as they overlook the very community they're standing in. "Brick by Brick" invokes creative inspiration from the diverse textures of Tongva Land, also known as Los Angeles. Fabricated almost entirely by foraged, up-cycled, or second-hand materials, the installation invites guests to sit in an open-air participatory studio and observe the collection in conversation with the natural landscape while listening to a looping sound artifact that ushers in the sonic fabric of Los Angeles City.
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Parallel to the collection stands a land-informed studio table mimicking the curvature of the park while footed on open rock face cinder blocks. While materializing the words from the campaign "Brick by Brick," this space encourages visitors to imagine how diverse forms of listening can inform making. Our studio constructed the Brick by Brick working table with a small ton of compressed sandstone bricks.
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We sourced used fruit crates to build the communal seating for the studio space. Inspired by the park bench, the crates adhered to each other as two-seaters with a fabric top from the multi-cultural materials left over from the collection production.
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Additionally, a horizon-aligned shelving unit offers print materials that explore the collection's looks, history of the land, diversity of the natural materials used in the installation, curated reading materials, and free books that expand on the idea of the Nu American creative. This space, like this land, and this collection are held with intention.
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In front of a composited view of two intersecting walking paths within the Kenneth Hahn state park, the Nu American collection rests calmly on a familiar metal t- shaped laundry line, placing the West Coast sensibilities in conversation with the rich Southern Californian natural landscape. Archival images hang in the balance of sky and earth, exhibiting photos of the neighborhood the studio exists in woven with moments from the Supervsn founder's childhood.
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The textures and colors of the collection are emphasized and replicated in the locally foraged rock, soil, and wild grass materials that embrace the room. Butterfly sage, wild mustard, and California cattails foraged from Kenneth Hahn were set amongst the installation, joining the park with the store. With apertures drilled into found cement blocks from a local deconstruction site, the butter robust butterfly sage stand as organic incense for the room.Β
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Educational pamphlets were printed, and bundles of foraged butterfly sage and peppercorns were offered for guests of the installation to mediate on post visit.
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