Design is neither neutral, nor universal. Apart from being being politically, socially, and economically devastating,
colonization ushered long lasting damages that continue to extend into artistic and academic practice.
This evolved into what we now know as neo-colonialism: imperial powers exerting dominance through media and oppressive trade policies and perpetuating debilitating conditions. It is necessary that we
understand decoloniality.
Decolonization is a necessary process that forces us to break away from the familiar and confront economic
andcultural biases; in this case that which thrive in the design world. Design has a very different face where I am from, and when it doesn’t hold up to the narrow standards of ‘good’ design set by the west, it is
dismissed.
So I performed a ‘recolonization’ on these iconic design pieces of the global north and made them more
visible and accessible to an audience in Pakistan.
There will be something very familiar about these objects but something not quite right. I used symbols that have been popular in visual culture post 2001; a visual culture wrought with symbols of war, poverty, politics, radicalism and identity.
These objects
are on sale, because no act of colonization is complete without undue profit.
To purchase a Philippe Starck-ish juicer reminiscent of an American military drone or a Michael Graves-ish Kettle
immortalizing President Bush, please send us a message.
The latest iterations were presented at Salone Satellite during Milan Design Week 2023.
There are two iterations so far.
The first one was directly adapting exisiting iconic designs for a newer lens. This included the eames elephant, the womb chair, the Barcelona bench, the memphis lamp and others:
The second iteration is a further study on the changed design, keeping the inspirations but slowly removing all trace of the original designs to take ownership:
click here for images from original thesis project and presentation
