Curatorial Practice > Nebulous Straits

A Study of A Dwelling
A Study of A Dwelling
By Rihab Essayh
2022

More from Rihab Essayh

I am working on developing tools to generate a soft world. In my thesis research, I defined soft futurism as an imagined future of hopeful new space that is decentering intersectional, inclusive and radically soft. In this residency, I would like to expand this first iteration of this soft world. Since last year, I have been using the Sketch Up program to plan and visualize my installation and plan my exhibition this fall. Though this new skill has a concrete, practical utility in the context of a virtual Residency, I wonder about the possibility of creating a virtual world without the parameters of the white cube of a gallery space.

I made a prototype of a dwelling with modular building elements: walls, corners, stairs, roof, doors and windows. I wish then expand into a village or community looking at various types of community housing first In SketchUp, you can add your own textures. I digitally rendered fabric to transparency resembling the silk organza that I use for my installation work, rendering digitally this gaussian world.

Even though this project is not a complete one it opens up the opportunity and the possibility of these drawn landscapes in my silk paintings, like a person posing for me for some poses, the digital architecture and landscape are posing for me. SketchUp becomes instead of a tool for prepping the installation into an integral tool of world-building.