Capstone Project

Out of Office, digital photographs, 2019

Installed at Sullivan Galleries at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Each chair in a waiting room carries with it a political history--from its conception and design, to its fabrication and everyday use. Out of Office is an ongoing photography project that documents furniture found in mental health care settings across the Chicagoland area. To date, the sites represented in this archive range from private practices to drop-in centers, community-based medical clinics, senior living communities, and trauma counseling centers for children. Viewers are invited to question the relationship between furniture design, socioeconomics, and stigma; as well as to challenge their own perceptions of comfort and the types of spaces where therapy can happen.

This photography series was completed in conjunction with my graduate capstone research and exhibited within the annual art therapy department exhibition, Spaces With(in). Rooted in my own art practice, I view this series of images as a culmination of my interests in sculpture, performance, curating, and art therapy. A combination of arts-based and theoretical inquiry, my written research includes sample images from my photo archive, as well as literature review from the fields of art therapy, psychology, architecture, critical theory, and phenomenology.