When a global film and television studio expanded their production operations to a vast mesa outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, we created interior lobby installations that celebrate local culture in the typically unheralded materials of the craftspeople who make entertainment magic.
The Art of Craft
Context leads concept at a New Mexico entertainment studio
Services
- Experiential Design
- Art Installations
Project Team
- Design Communications Ltd.
Throughout the enormous campus, the lobbies of the new soundstages provide an opportunity to connect with a regular influx of contract tradespeople, visiting talent, and studio guests.
Ready for a close-up
The beauty of traditional turquoise jewelry is replicated in hair and makeup tools: brushes, combs, sponges, curlers, hair extensions, mirrors, and hair clips. Materials were sourced to define the color palette, then meticulously documented in the final layout for fabrication.
An adjacent interpretive plaque describes the concept and quantifies the materials used in it.
The installations honor the artistry of the teams who typically work behind the scenes in forms that spring from the New Mexico context.
Pines and needles
New Mexico’s state tree, the piñon pine, is rendered in the materials of costume design. Shades of green zippers and tailors' tapes bisect stems made of hundreds of stacked spools of thread, creating a geometric and richly textured visual.
As a firm, we’ve always been reluctant to refer to our work as art, opting instead to define projects like this as installations. The results of this project actively blur that line.
The geometry of nature
The patterning of the great western diamondback rattlesnake is reproduced in the tools of those who build production sets. Layers of building materials are wrapped in earthy tones of sandpaper and duct tape, then embellished with hardware. Diamond shapes diminish in size to create the illusion of volume.
