Friedman Benda is pleased to present, Chairs Don’t Cry, Lithuanian designer Barbora Žilinskaitė’s inaugural solo exhibition opening at the gallery’s Los Angeles location.
Stifled by the constraints of a traditional design education at the outset of her career, Žilinskaitė sought to distance herself from boundaried definitions in the field. Investigating relationships between owners and their objects, she questions human-centered worldviews and consumption habits. Seeking to create a bridge between people and things, she urges the user to relate to their objects as if they were entering into a dialogue between two equal parties. Imbuing design with representative figurative shapes as a mode of generating agency, Žilinskaitė experiments with brightly colored dyes and surrealistic organic corporeal forms crafted from her signature medium of reclaimed sawdust.
“Human-like features attract us, evoke emotions and feelings, they create this weird still friendly atmosphere,” she explains, “but also human-like objects become more significant – and that helps me to advocate for them.”
About Barbora Žilinskaitė
Born in 1996 in Kaunas, Lithuania, Barbora Žilinskaitė is a designer living and working in Brussels, Belgium. Seeking to distance herself from boundaried definitions of creative practices, Žilinskaitė’s output approaches design through a sculptural lens with a focus on material experimentation. Interested in exploring the interaction between human and object, through her practice Žilinskaitė explores what emotions may be provoked, how habits can be changed or new routines formed through this relationship. Žilinskaitė’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Žilinskaitė graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts in Lithuania with a B.A. degree in product and spatial design. She currently works and lives in Brussels, Belgium.
