The Launch Party: aaaaapple open studio

Huidi Xiang (2020)

aaaaaapple by Huidi Xiang :: Supported by FRFAF (#2020-051) from STUDIO for Creative Inquiry on Vimeo.

The Launch Party: aaaaapple open studio is an interdisciplinary design and research studio whose primary subject is cute cartoon icons and the contemporary aesthetic of cuteness. Constructed between fact and fiction, this project intends to cultivate an alternative realm to broach complex issues around contemporary pop-cultural imagery production, circulation, and consumption in late capitalism.

The sculptural installation presented here is an open studio event/exhibition of this imaginary studio. The open studio presents seven sections of the studio, plus one meeting section. These seven sections are time, history, future, measure, paper, statement, and space. Each section is represented by their working table and the tools each department is using or research outcomes they produce. And these working tables are redesigned again for target viewers who are 5 apples tall, thus making each table around 3.4 inches tall.

The Launch Party: aaaaapple open studio was conceived and created by Huidi Xiang, an MFA student in the CMU School of Art, and was produced with the support of Microgrant #2020-051 from the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier.