Vanessa Clement

Scrap Seating for Scrap People is a set of furniture made from excess and waste material that reacts to the body when sat upon. The pieces address the concept of disposability as it applies to material and people. In trying to create spaces of rest from what already exists, while limiting the exploitation of others in the methods of its creation, I have explored ways “work,” “labor,” and “making” have been commodified in our current economic system. How can we reclaim labor and making once it has been exploited? What can be made from what is left over, what already exists? What can labor without exploitation become? This is a space for those trying to find new ways to relate to labor and creation that are not based around harmful systems and design methods that have grown from the history of designing only for those with economic power. I hope to bring this to an audience that is confronting these questions and looking for art and design that does not come into the world at the expense of someone else.