Healing Through Trauma
Chair design
My story begins on April 21, 2019. I was home from college, enjoying the weekend with family, until we realized my dad had been missing for some time. To all of our surprise, we found him having a cardiac arrest. Scrambling to save his life, it felt as if the world moved in slow motion. We called the paramedics and prayed they would come fast enough. His heart stoped for 2.45 minutes, and I truly thought my world was ending.
However, the true depth of my story comes long after his cardiac arrest. It was the long healing process that followed. After this day, my foundation had been torn. Feelings of anxiety and depression overcame me, as we took the next steps in my father's health journey. The unnerving possibility of him leaving so suddenly left me broken. Realizing that the true healing process from trauma comes long after the trauma itself.
I chose to draw inspiration for the form of my chair from Plkastil. An early style of poster art that originated in Germany in the early 1900's. Plakastil was characterized by a simple visual language of sign and shape. Relying heavily on simple, unified forms with negative space. Thus inspiring the form for my chair design. Simple, unified, consisting of classic shapes.
I wanted the design to demonstrate the healing process. Hence, the uncomfortable and hard structure. The focal point of this design is the back. Drawing inspiration from my dad's cardiac arrest, the split mimics that of a heart beat, specifically my dad's heartbeat. It also characterizes the split in my foundation, and my own
non-linear healing process.
