- By
- Lily Sullivan
BROOK KLAUSING AND JESSE SEEGERS CREATE A HIDDEN OASIS FOR COLLECTIVE DESIGN
Part futuristic bubble, part garden, the installation “Oasis” is one of the centerpieces at this weekend’s Collective Design Fair in New York. A collaboration between landscape designer Brook Klausing and artist Jesse Seegers, the project invites visitors to question their sensory experiences while walking through an ethereal dreamland space.
“Oasis” consists of three tapered inflated tubes ranging in height from six to thirteen feet—altering the experience and comfort levels of guests—and organized in a triangle formation. “We’re imagining a harsher, less hospitable exterior and, as you move through the protected landscape, you move into something more comfortable and more human,” says Klausing. The three tubes reflect Seegers’s ongoing work with temporary inflatable spaces, typically translucent, as in “Oasis,” or transparent to offer a feeling of both protection and entrapment. The pair developed a spatial sequence for the installation, starting with a small door opening onto a huge space inflated by continuously running fans before squeezing through a threshold to a medium-sized inflatable allowing for a decompression at the end. The last chamber leads to a lush courtyard, complete with artificial pond and duck, surrounded by the inflatable pieces.
Klausing is a veteran of Collective Design, having participated last year with his firm Brook Landscape, which he runs with Brian Green. The team outfitted the entry hall with their stunning and thoughtful landscape work as well as pieces from their collection of furniture. This year, in their partnership with Seegers, the imagined environment took on a much more playful tone. “It’s nice to play with someone else and go high concept,” Klausing notes. “We are able to create a narrative and tell a different story, taking what we do to the next level.”
Seegers jumps in, “Likewise for me, it was fun to do a charrette with Brooks and his crew. I come from a more academic background, just recently leaving the architecture school at Columbia to do more projects like this. There isn’t intellectual baggage, it’s a fun spatial experience with a narrative. In the context of the fair that’s made up of lots of amazing work, [we wanted] to do something that provides a sort of foil for the booths.”
The Collective Design Fair runs today through Sunday.
- By
- Lily Sullivan
