Works in Progress III

Curated by Kate Greenberg and our own Kelley Perumbeti, this was the third exhibition of the Works In Progress series, which seeks to amplify, archive, nourish, and converse around the Bay Area craft + design community. The focus is on functional, handcrafted, and experimental work. Each iteration explores a unique lens of community, telling a story through the exhibition design and a printed archival component that dives deeper into the stories of the people and processes behind the work. For Works in Progress III, the focus of the brief was the park bench.

Public benches are silent pillars of the urban and surrounding landscape, representing the collective experience of a community. When we sit on a public bench, it is ours for a moment: in solitude, contemplation, conversation, and observation. Casting aside prior expectations of function or appearance, a group of artists and designers have been asked to craft a public bench informed by personal reflection. Does the bench beckon an action? Is it informed by memory? Does it reference a specific place?

Works In Progress III was an invitation to an interior landscape where the personal and the public are blurred. By breathing new perspectives into a furniture archetype, the seven public benches celebrated the importance of individuality within a shared experience.

Hosted and Supported by The Wornick Distinguished Professorship Endowment, in partnership with the Design Division, the Furniture program and the department of Exhibitions and Public Programs at California College of the Arts.