Apricity
Apricity was my thesis project in my final year at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The beginnings of this thesis manifested through anxieties about environmental reform in industrial design.The never ending quest to reduce carbon footprints and as i called it then “make with the already here”. Soon after, come winter, i realized it had turned into not only anxieties about that, but anxieties about being a maker, and how my life reflects through what i create.
This project became a manifestation of holding space for intimate emotions of trauma recovery and anxiety management. This study strayed from hyper-fixation on ecological practices and simultaneously became about living. Living not because we have to or need to, but because we get to.
This project became entangled in fine lines, complicated neuro drawings, manipulations in Douglas fir, and the relationship of person to person, person to family, and person to earth.
This project was so heavily process/ manufacturing based. This credenza became the canvas of dedicated meditation and repetition. Simply making space for expression. It was meant to be big so that it could take time. I put all of me here.
It’s my first time here. And I know this project didn’t save the world, it didn’t relieve the aching “how do we save the world” questions. But basically in short, this project made me stronger and it got me through some of the hardest moments I’ve experienced in my life.
Apricity means the warmth of the sun in winter. The statement refers to the statement that there will be better days, there will be hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I chose this name back in the winter not really holding much attention to it. Other than that It was a nice name, and it had a lovely platitude. Here at the end though, I’m a little silly. Because it’s really the perfect name. This project has been my apricity. It was the warmth of the sun in my winter.
Hyper fixation, and repetition, how I communicate my anxieties, can be communicated through the consistent repetition of millwork throughout the piece. The theme of apricity can be interpreted through the spherical and semispherical imprints on the faces of the sliding doors. The subdominant and subordinate elements are shown best in the bent laminated curve, and minimal line work designs.