Designer Interview: Creating Space With Art
Designer Tracey Coffin Experiments With Modular Felt Tapestries
Art can transcend decorative purposes in order to function practically and dynamically — not only to fill space, but potentially to create space too. For New York designer Tracey Coffin, a fascination with the permeable and unconventional space-defining qualities of fabric and tapestry led her to a close working relationship with modular design, felt, and even cellular structures, to inspire some of the most beautifully designed “curtains” that I have seen.
At the juncture of art, architecture, technology and even biology, Tracey Coffin's pieces begin to reveal how close all fields of design really are. When thinking about your own home, use this as model that you can always redefine and reappropriate the roles objects in your home traditionally have served in order to meet your needs and design inspirations.
At the juncture of art, architecture, technology and even biology, Tracey Coffin's pieces begin to reveal how close all fields of design really are. When thinking about your own home, use this as model that you can always redefine and reappropriate the roles objects in your home traditionally have served in order to meet your needs and design inspirations.
For Coffin, that meant applying the qualities and characteristics that she admired about decorative tapestries and curtains towards the functionality of three dimensional uses.
Composed of interlocking felt modules, the effortless charm of Coffin’s patterns is what first drew me to her pieces, and her non-conventional source of inspiration and thoughtful execution is what truly makes them unique.
“I always find myself flipping through my boyfriend’s biochemistry books, captivated by all the imagery — there’s something so casually elegant about the loose-fit organization of cellular structures. The clustering seems simultaneously haphazard and intentional; incomplete yet complete. There’s a sense of elusiveness that I try to convey through my work.”
To add structure to her patterns, Coffin chose to work with felt. It “can take on so many shapes but maintain some structural integrity. It’s recyclable, it’s easy to work with, and it adds a lot of texture to a space.”
The amount of detail and effort that goes into these pieces means that it is crucial that they have a lifespan to match. The unfortunate thing with most upholstered furniture pieces — curtains especially — is that the constant beat from the sun prematurely ages and fades the material quickly. With that in mind, Tracey designed the entire curtain to be an interchangeable system of modular pieces. That way, if an area of the curtain is especially weathered, it isn’t necessary to throw out the entire panel; simply exchange a new piece for the damaged one.
The individual felt modules are only about 4” x 4” and can be arranged to create an infinite number of designs and patterns.
With modular products, it is necessary to be able to see a 4” x 4” piece of felt individually as a component of a panel that may contain hundreds of modules, as well the complete finished product. Technology and instinct both play important roles in this process.
“The first piece I made was extremely intuitive - I was using the curtain rod in my bedroom and working on it during the late afternoon and evening. My window was west facing and my room always received blinding light during sunset, so most of the opaque areas on the tapestry were assembled during sunset simply to prevent sun from getting in my eyes while the transparent areas were done in the evening to somehow bring some balance between the two. Given my profession, I have the ability to work with parametric software that could predefine the pattern, size, and shape of an infinite number of tapestries before I actually cut any material, but I often try to avoid this much predetermination because I feel like you’re essentially designing an instruction manual — and where’s the fun in that?”
Unintentional side effects begin to present themselves in unexpected ways. Tracey has been using old modules as coasters and hot pads, which “constantly makes [her] reconsider how something that started as a tapestry could transform into a subset of products.” Thinking of a wall hanging this way opens potential to future possibilities for “using the technique to create clothing or upholstery.”
The connections between the felt modules create unpredicted sun patterns that progressively change and flicker as the sun moves throughout the day.
Working with modular design means that furniture, houses, and infinite other products can be produced to be “hyper-customized, transformable, as well as economical.” Instead of being forced to re-purpose products yourself, design can begin to become more of a collaboration between designer and user.
“Collaboration also suggests that an active dialogue is occurring, and I think that exchange is not only healthy (especially if it’s between designer and user) but imperative to create lasting products.”
“Collaboration also suggests that an active dialogue is occurring, and I think that exchange is not only healthy (especially if it’s between designer and user) but imperative to create lasting products.”
I find it really refreshing for a designer to be crafting art pieces almost entirely by hand in an age where everything is digitally driven. For Tracey, “It has definitely changed the way I think about scale and construction...what I’ve gleaned from this trend is the fundamental notion that you should know how to build what you design. It seems so obvious, but it’s surprising how little we truly know how the things we’re constantly surrounded by are actually put together.”
Thanks again to Tracey Coffin for sharing her projects. I have been told I should keep my eyes out for a metallic mylar modular disco ball appearing in the near future.
More Houzz interviews
Thanks again to Tracey Coffin for sharing her projects. I have been told I should keep my eyes out for a metallic mylar modular disco ball appearing in the near future.
More Houzz interviews