DRAFTS is a collaborative artistic research project initiated in 2021 by Vidmina Stasiulyte, a design researcher, senior lecturer at the Swedish School of Textiles and Faseeh Saleem, currently enrolled as an industrial Ph.D. scholar, at the Swedish School of Textiles. DRAFTS highlights the research process – thinking, ideating and suggesting ideas – as expressed through the design artifacts. The series of experimental exhibitions presents various examples and interpretations of what a research artifact is or could be.

Events

After three efficacious iterations DRAFTS 4: Body and Space Relations is presented at Art Address. The Multi-platform events will be spread over at the following venues starting from 2nd – 15th April 2023. The events include talks, exhibitions, workshops and webinars.

• Exhibition at Art Address Canada
• Project Introduction/talk at Art Gallery of Missussauga
• Talk at Oakville Galleries
• Workshop at Oakville Museum

DRAFTS 4: Body and Space Relations

The study of the interaction between body and space has taken centre stage in recent design and architectural debates. Space is being re-examined for its fluidity and ability to adapt, give dimensions, and how space measures change when understood as time. In contrast, the body inhibits both this space and time and constantly changes. The relationship between body and space is interdependent and intertwined, where they constantly affect, shape and impress on one another. The nuances, spirit and social  implications of the many cultures and spaces we inhibit imprint on the body; while the body is where identity, reflexivity, soul, and mind mediate; thus, the two incessantly become sites of shifting cultural meaning. After the three efficacious proceedings of the artistic research project DRAFTS, this multiplatform exhibition brings together an international and multigenerational group of artists, researchers and designers to share current understandings, opportunities and challenges of Body and Space Relations through basic experimental art and design research. The exhibition explores empirical artistic expressions and functional aesthetic ideas to examine the role of objects and materiality in cultural sociology, the relation between bodily perception and space, and how it affects people’s experience of art when encountered in an unconventional  setting.

In an international collaboration between Art Address Canada and the University of Borås – The Swedish School of Textiles, both artistic and research-based works are presented as a part of an exhibition and online webinar. Along with these activates, workshops are organized 
to interact and explore varied insights into Body and Space.
DRAFTS is part of the Body and Space Research Lab

Curators

Tazeen Qayyum & Faisal Anwar (Art Address Canada) and Faseeh Saleem (University of Borås, Sweden)

Artists

Akash Inbakumar, Atanas Bozdarov, Clemens Thornquist, Elvira Jönsson, Erin Lewis, Helga Halldorsdottir, Karin Landahl & Stefanie Malmgren de Oliveira, Marjan Kooroshnia, Sameer Farooq, Soheila K. Esfahani.