Rescheduled to
October 6, 2024
1pm - 5pm ET
at BAAA! (300 Campbell Ave, Unit 114)
All materials* + snacks provided
*(see optional note)
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Studio Rat is a creative practice pursuing experimental installation art and design between the cities of Montréal and Toronto. Studio Rat was founded in 2018 as a site for investigations on plastics, inflatables, and community building between artists Dom Di Libero and Emily Allan. The duo creates inflatable dreamscapes from discarded materials that present a commentary on the irreversible binding of plastic in our environments and everyday experience. Play, softness, and sustainability inform Studio Rat’s approach to space-making and DIY fabrication methods, which they engage through a continuous cycle of rework and reuse.
As artists and educators, Emily and Dom have developed and facilitated numerous workshops and curriculum including their collaborative research project “Making-with Plastic” (2021-present) and iterative workshop series “Inflatables 101” (2021-present). Their work has been shown at events and exhibitions across Canada including Arsenal Contemporary Art (Montréal, 2024), Espace Transmission (Montréal, 2023), Nuit Blanche (Toronto, 2023), Art Nest for Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (Toronto, 2023), Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto, 2022), and in the United States, in collaboration with Maya Fuhr at SADE Gallery (Los Angeles, 2023).
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Join us in a hands-on workshop as participants are led through the step-by-step process of co-making an inflated space, using laminated reclaimed plastic. Craft your own personalized experimental plastic collages, fused together using a heat press from waste plastics, then patch them together to produce a quilted panel that will form the final collaborative inflatable structure.
🎈 Co-make an inflatable/soft space
♻️ Explore the impacts of plastics & methods of circular design
🤝 Collaborative learning through play
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Explore...
- circularity and unique ways of re-working waste materials
- inflatable architecture as a space-making tool
- stories and histories of inflatable architecture and plastics
- historical, cultural, and environmental impact of plastics
- hands-on playful experimentation as learning method
Limited capacity
*Optional note:
Please collect and bring waste plastics to the workshop:
- LDPE Shopping bags
- HDPE Shopping bags
- Fruit netting (as in bags of mandarin oranges)
- Milk bags
- Plastic packaging
- Mattress bags
Materials not to bring:
- Very thin plastic product bags
- Cellophane
- Hard plastics
- Vinyl
Photos courtesy of Studio Rat