[ ]
thesis project
"[ ]" is an immersive installation exploring how identity is shaped, suppressed, and endured within environments marked by intersecting social, cultural, and spatial forces. Using oil paintings, 40-foot braids, and handmade clay bricks, the work engages the embodied experience of tension, constraint, and ambivalence.
The brick structures function as their own rigid, weighty system - evoking foundations that both support and restrict. Alongside weathered surfaces and soft braided forms, they echo the emotional labor of existing within structures that define and confine.
Drawing from personal and collective histories, the work reflects on the endurance required to navigate spaces that resist one’s full presence. Through scale, repetition, and spatial pressure, "[ ]" reflects on the complexities of identity - for the ambiguity of becoming, and the layered systems we carry.
Year
2025
Category
FINE ARTS
MATERIALS
-OIL PAINT
-4 - 5'x3' canvas
-RED CLAY
-BRAIDING
HAIR
-TWINE
Research
This project began with an investigation into how physical and institutional spaces shape lived experience - especially for those navigating intersecting identities. Drawing from personal memory and collective histories, I explored how architecture, materials, and environments mirror broader systems of exclusion, control, and survival.
Design
Materials were selected for their emotional and symbolic weight. Long braided forms - representing fluidity, lineage, and resilience - extend across the space and seamlessly disappear into the walls, suggesting a merging of body and architecture. Clay bricks and weathered surfaces evoke systems that are rigid, confining, and enduring. Together, these elements create a spatial narrative of pressure and persistence.
Development
Built through a process of layering and spatial negotiation, the installation was shaped by an interest in how space functions as both metaphor and material. The environment applies physical tension through repetition, scale, and proximity - inviting viewers to enter a system that holds, resists, and reshapes identity.
CONCEPT
The installation explores how tension, constraint, and ambivalence are felt within spaces that both define and deny. It reflects on the psychological and emotional impact of being shaped by structures - social, cultural, and spatial - that act upon the body and self. Rather than offering clarity, the work holds space for complexity and contradiction.
More Works More Works
©2025 STEWART DESIGN
©2025 STEWART DESIGN
[ ]
thesis project
“[ ]” is an immersive installation that explores how identity is shaped and strained by intersecting systems of power. Using oil paintings, 40-foot braids disappearing into the walls, and handmade clay bricks, the work materializes tension, constraint, and ambivalence. The brick structures act as a weighty system - both foundational and confining - while braided forms and weathered textures evoke the emotional labor of navigating spaces that suppress one’s full presence. Grounded in personal and collective histories, “[ ]” reflects on the ambiguity of becoming and the layered systems we carry.
Year
2025
Category
FINE ARTS
MATERIALS
-OIL PAINT
-4 - 5'x3' canvas
-RED CLAY
-BRAIDING
HAIR
-TWINE
Research
This project began with an investigation into how physical and institutional spaces shape lived experience - especially for those navigating intersecting identities. Drawing from personal memory and collective histories, I explored how architecture, materials, and environments mirror broader systems of exclusion, control, and survival.
Design
Materials were selected for their emotional and symbolic weight. Long braided forms - representing fluidity, lineage, and resilience - extend across the space and seamlessly disappear into the walls, suggesting a merging of body and architecture. Clay bricks and weathered surfaces evoke systems that are rigid, confining, and enduring. Together, these elements create a spatial narrative of pressure and persistence.
Development
Built through a process of layering and spatial negotiation, the installation was shaped by an interest in how space functions as both metaphor and material. The environment applies physical tension through repetition, scale, and proximity - inviting viewers to enter a system that holds, resists, and reshapes identity.
Concept
The installation explores how tension, constraint, and ambivalence are felt within spaces that both define and deny. It reflects on the psychological and emotional impact of being shaped by structures - social, cultural, and spatial - that act upon the body and self. Rather than offering clarity, the work holds space for complexity and contradiction.
Concept
More Works More Works
©2025 STEWART DESIGN
©2025 STEWART DESIGN
[ ]
thesis project
“[ ]” is an immersive installation that explores how identity is shaped and strained by intersecting systems of power. Using oil paintings, 40-foot braids disappearing into the walls, and handmade clay bricks, the work materializes tension, constraint, and ambivalence. The brick structures act as a weighty system - both foundational and confining - while braided forms and weathered textures evoke the emotional labor of navigating spaces that suppress one’s full presence. Grounded in personal and collective histories, “[ ]” reflects on the ambiguity of becoming and the layered systems we carry.
Year
2025
Category
FINE ARTS
MATERIALS
-OIL PAINT
-4 - 5'x3' canvas
-RED CLAY
-BRAIDING
HAIR
-TWINE
Research
This project began with an investigation into how physical and institutional spaces shape lived experience - especially for those navigating intersecting identities. Drawing from personal memory and collective histories, I explored how architecture, materials, and environments mirror broader systems of exclusion, control, and survival.
Design
Materials were selected for their emotional and symbolic weight. Long braided forms - representing fluidity, lineage, and resilience - extend across the space and seamlessly disappear into the walls, suggesting a merging of body and architecture. Clay bricks and weathered surfaces evoke systems that are rigid, confining, and enduring. Together, these elements create a spatial narrative of pressure and persistence.
Development
Built through a process of layering and spatial negotiation, the installation was shaped by an interest in how space functions as both metaphor and material. The environment applies physical tension through repetition, scale, and proximity - inviting viewers to enter a system that holds, resists, and reshapes identity.
CONCEPT
The installation explores how tension, constraint, and ambivalence are felt within spaces that both define and deny. It reflects on the psychological and emotional impact of being shaped by structures - social, cultural, and spatial - that act upon the body and self. Rather than offering clarity, the work holds space for complexity and contradiction.
More Works More Works
©2025 STEWART DESIGN
©2025 STEWART DESIGN
[ ]
thesis project
“[ ]” is an immersive installation that explores how identity is shaped and strained by intersecting systems of power. Using oil paintings, 40-foot braids disappearing into the walls, and handmade clay bricks, the work materializes tension, constraint, and ambivalence. The brick structures act as a weighty system - both foundational and confining - while braided forms and weathered textures evoke the emotional labor of navigating spaces that suppress one’s full presence. Grounded in personal and collective histories, “[ ]” reflects on the ambiguity of becoming and the layered systems we carry.
Year
2025
Category
FINE ARTS
MATERIALS
-OIL PAINT
-4 - 5'x3' canvas
-RED CLAY
-BRAIDING
HAIR
-TWINE
Research
This project began with an investigation into how physical and institutional spaces shape lived experience - especially for those navigating intersecting identities. Drawing from personal memory and collective histories, I explored how architecture, materials, and environments mirror broader systems of exclusion, control, and survival.
Design
Materials were selected for their emotional and symbolic weight. Long braided forms - representing fluidity, lineage, and resilience - extend across the space and seamlessly disappear into the walls, suggesting a merging of body and architecture. Clay bricks and weathered surfaces evoke systems that are rigid, confining, and enduring. Together, these elements create a spatial narrative of pressure and persistence.
Development
Built through a process of layering and spatial negotiation, the installation was shaped by an interest in how space functions as both metaphor and material. The environment applies physical tension through repetition, scale, and proximity - inviting viewers to enter a system that holds, resists, and reshapes identity.
CONCEPT
The installation explores how tension, constraint, and ambivalence are felt within spaces that both define and deny. It reflects on the psychological and emotional impact of being shaped by structures - social, cultural, and spatial - that act upon the body and self. Rather than offering clarity, the work holds space for complexity and contradiction.
More Works More Works
©2025 STEWART DESIGN