Modern furniture design is the product of continuously advancing technological processes: displacing traditional techniques to make way for newly developed technology defines this progress. The exploration of the duality between traditional and contemporary design led me to create these objects, which juxtapose languages of traditional techniques with contemporary craft. The historic and sculptural qualities inherent in furniture forms enable the works in Con-Temporary: Displacement of Tradition to convey the relationship of past and present. I am motivated to create work in response to rapid change in design and its effect on the perception of the tradition and history of functional objects. Furniture forms in specific historic American styles stemming from England, including Queen Anne, Chippendale, and Victorian, represent an era of the hand-made. The industrial revolution and the subsequent modernization of furniture design challenged the traditional approach to furniture making throughout the 19th Century. The time-honored forms and ornate qualities now symbolize a history of craft and the social conditions that shaped them. The works in Con-Temporary put into context the abundant decoration used in furniture forms of American period styles from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, using modern materials and processes. The visual struggle of material and form expresses the continuing disconnection from the roots of craft in contemporary design. Con-Temporary: Displacement of Tradition was shown in the Flor Y Canto Gallery at San Diego State University in the Art Department on October 3-8, 2009.
