PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
RECORD
WATER-ENABLED ESCAPEMENT MECHANISM
ARTEFACT
COUNTERWEIGHT
MATERIAL MEMORIES III, 2018
In a time where we strive to protect artefacts from weathering, we deprive materials of remembering their exchanges with their visitors.
An interactive museum display which provides a disc as a surrogate object that ages on behalf of the artefact protected within it. It activates with the visitor's presence and materialises the engagement.
3D Modelling and Render by Viraj Joshi and Matteo Bandi
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
RECORD
ENGRAVER
MATERIAL MEMORIES I, 2018
In a time where we strive to protect artefacts from weathering, we deprive materials of remembering their exchanges with their environment.
A series of these discs are to be accompanied artefacts across archaeological museums, providing insights to future generations regarding popularity and engagement with the displayed content. Powered by a series of gears and counterweights and activated by the visitor's weight, the disc rotates and brushes against a brass engraver pressed against its surface.
MDF, steel, brass, copper, rope
LIGHT EXPOSURE CONTROL
ARTEFACT
THE MUSEUM AS A MACHINE, DISPLAY CASE II, 2018
Reimagining the space of the museum as a machine that comes to life to welcome its visitors by revealing their content in their presence.
Steel, brass, rope, glass
PRESSURE POWERED PAYLOAD
AEROCENE SOLAR SCULPTURES
GRACE PAPPAS x AEROCENE
PRESSURE POWERED PAYLOAD, 2017
A series of payloads harnessing atmospheric conditions, developed for the Aerocene Foundation.
Aerocene is a utopic vision for an era where human society surpasses the catastrophic nature of the Anthropocene and moves into a new era of harmonious coexistence with our environment. The vehicles of the Aerocene are solar sculptures that float in response to the temperature differential inside their envelope.
By shifting the attention to the intangible forces surrounding physical matter, the custom-made payloads are puppeteered by time, gravity, temperature and pressure. By employing the appropriate materials, these analog payloads animate in response to barometric and mechanical changes experienced during flight.
Aerocene Community Member page
Pistons, valves, pressure differentials experienced during flight.
Photograph credits: Aerocene Foundation, shared under creative commons.
SHOW CONTRIBUTIONS
ON AIR: CARTE BLANCHE TO TOMAS SARACENO
PARTICIPATION WITH SHOWCASE OF SCIENTIFIC PAYLOADS
& ARTISTIC PROGRAMMING FOR AEROCENE
PALAIS DE TOKYO, PARIS
SEPT 2018 - JAN 2019
On Air was Tomas Saraceno's invitation to flood the spaces of Palais de Tokyo with his world for a future living in harmonious resonance with our environment.
Contribution to the show was threefold. Content-wise, a series of outcomes and provocations springing out of Grace's and Aerocene's collaboration were showcased as part of the Aerocene community section of the exhibition. These included an overview of the payloads developed so far as well as concepts and ideas that are in development.
The most exciting part of our exchange laid in the show itself; having a spherical understanding of the various conceptual and technical elements of the project, Grace was invited to activate the space and engage with the public in creative and technical projects. In the span of those 3 months, the Aerocene room became a live studio where the public was invited to apply their newly found knowledge into action. This body of the show's public program designed and lead by Grace included a spectrum of activities including theoretical discussions, making of scientific and artistic payloads, specially designed engagement briefs with universities including Parsons Paris, RCA and ESPCI as well as facilitation of contributions directed by other community members. These included contributions by Pablo Suarez from the French Red Cross, sound artist Sam Herz as well as design studio thr34d5.
Pistons, valves, pressure differentials experienced during flight.
QUIDS-IN: V&A FRIDAY LATE
PARTICIPATION WITH THE RIGHT ARM PROJECT
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
MARCH 2017
What is the inherent value of attending physical museum spaces? Springing from a fear that future museums, enchanted by the freshness of the digital world might forget the importance of entangling the new mediums with strong physical engagement, we created a ritualistic performance immortalising the hands of the show's visitors.
Project was developed specifically for the V&A Friday late of March 2017, Quids in, which was exploring the future of Money. The project was later invited to participated in the Design Museum Director’s Salon as well as the Royal College of Art's White Noise
Produced in collaboration with Albert Barbu and Oscar Warr
BA 2119: FLIGHT OF THE FUTURE
EXHIBITION PRODUCTION MANAGMENT
SAATCHI GALLERY, LONDON
AUGUST 2019
"To celebrate its centenary British Airways is launching BA 2119: Flight of the Future, a first-of-its-kind exhibition looking ahead to the next 100 years of flying and imagining what that may look like. "
Grace Pappas studio hired by the Royal College of Art to project manage and oversea the final steps of the show production at Saatchi Gallery. Experience contributed towards successfully predicting and planning for the show's logistical and technical complications. Primary focus and responsibility was to oversea all elements (both individual artworks as well as curatorial elements) and ensure they are all delivered to the highest professional standard.
Video credits: British Airways 2019
INDEPENT PRODUCTIONS
Benton Ching
ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART
COURTYARD GALLERIES, LONDON
MAY 2018
EXPANDED MUSEUM
FOUNDER / CURATOR
Expanded Museum demonstrates a multi-faceted concern with the way the contemporary museum operates.
The works expose the complex relationship between the museum and public, and the negotiations that occur in and around the cultural institution; systems of observation, reservation, archiving, materiality and symbolism.
Through these explorations, the exhibition seeks to expand the parameters and to create an open dialogue around the Museum, both as a host of cultural objects and as an objectified cultural space.
Bex Liu
EVENT 1
ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART
COURTYARD GALLERIES, LONDON
MAY 2018
An exhibition bringing together five artists and designers from the Royal College of Art, working on the theme of museums and the reimagining of their potential.
Participating Artists:
Benton Ching, Bex Liu, Grace Pappas, Jessica Wetherley, Oscar Warr
EVENT 2
EXPANDED MUSEUM ACADEMY ATHENS
INDEPENDENT PROJECT SPACE
SEPTEMBER 2019
A two week intensive residency program, diving into the theme of Contemporary Archaeology. Sprig-boarding off the canonical model of the archaeological museums found in Athens, residents expanded on the possibilities of contemporary story telling through recontextualising the museum as a medium.
Participating Artists / Researchers:
Ana Helena Arevalo, Dooyong Ro, Grace Pappas, Kevin Walker, Marika Grasso, Milo O'Halloran, Stella Papaioannou, Susan Atwill
CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
MATERIALS AS STORY AGGREGATORS
ONGOING
Following my grandmother's sudden passing, we visited her former home to strip it of her belongings
We slowly made our way through her rooms, packing away and retiring all of the objects that were once woven together by their joint purpose of serving varying elements of her humble life. Not even a high school student at the time, I thirstily touched and opened all of the cupboards, boxes, bags and drawers that were now dropped inanimate by their puppeteer's sudden disappearance. I was hastily scanning them for remnants of her presence, before their set was dismantled forever.
In her bathroom, next to her mirror was a tub of a commercially popular Nivea cream. I opened its lid for inspection. She had used it. It was a single coin's worth cream but since that moment it became the single most precious object in my possession. Without verbally captioning my actions to my family, I quietly packed the cream away and upon our return home, placed it on my dresser.
One of the following evenings and while I was studying for an upcoming school exam, my mother came into my room for our usual evening catch up. Not wanting to disturb my focus, she quietly fiddled with the objects outside my field of vision. Once I lifted my gaze to track her in space, I caught her in the moment of closing the lid from a white tub on my dresser. I was abruptly shook to consciousness. She had used some of my grandmother's cream.
But that initial panic was gently eclipsed by the thought that now my mother's gestures were layered just on top of her's.
My Grandmother's Nivea Cream
Antikythera shipwreck findings
Bed from volcanic site in Thera