“Flaura,” a workshop hosted by, Desiree Kong & Shawna Wu, using core principles of Ikebana (floral arrangement) to activate mindfulness. As spring arrives and nature around us revives itself from hibernation, this workshop encourages a healing rediscovery of balance in this new season. During the workshop, participants will arrange “floral” sculptures created using clay, natural fibers, natural dyes and repurposed materials from textiles.
By choosing to use sustainable materials to create these sculptures, it allows a rethinking of the elements that go into Ikebana composition and contributes to a new mode of creativity and reflection. Through the act of creating an arrangement, we are physically reorganizing the extensions of our body in an exterior space to activate the process of mindfully arranging our interior space or aura. By using these materials as an expressive tool to reveal emotions, we consider composition to find balance within and to emanate outward. Participants will be able to leave the workshop with their own sculpture.
Desiree Kong is a multidisciplinary artist interested in creating systems of communication. She works with photography as a core element to her work while expanding into more interactive experiences through games, workshops and intimate events.
http://www.desireekong.com/
@desiree.kong
Shawna Wu (b. Singapore) is a New York based Taiwanese artist who works sensuously with mediums involving the body and textiles. "A dressing is for a wound..." - Her work explores the ways in which materiality, performance and community building addresses and heals our gaps in intimacy, empathy and cultural nuance. Her work is elevated through traditional and meticulous textile making craftsmanship, reiterating the idea of a deliberate, thoughtful material consciousness within a loving and sustainable vision.
http://shawnawux.com/
@shawnawu
May 25th 2019