A Beautiful Mess

As part of award-winning Wonders of Weaving “Solidarity Resilience” program, an art installation is built to embrace the journey of motherhood as a harmony of all the beauty and the mess, and resonate mother's silent struggles.

Many mothers experience guilt, exhaustion, blues, insecurities, even depressions for the hardest job they could bear. Nevertheless, it is the most rewarding job they ever have as their life becomes more meaningful with the presence of the little one. A Beautiful Mess is a collaboration project between architecture, building materials, craftsmanship, photography and website as a manifestation of a powerful message about women empowerment, self-love and acceptance to many mothers out there to let them know that they are seen and heard and not alone. 

More than just about motherhood, the installation also embodies sustainability and collaboration between design and craftsmanship that resulted in a new value for discarded items as part of building materials. A cubical translucent shelter is engraved with numerous keywords of expressions collected from many mothers in the world, representing how mothers protect her children through dynamic physical and emotional journeys. The leftovers of Sandei window blinds fabric are combined and woven by ByoLiving into a hyperbolic shape of mother’s womb, with the breathing light effect designed by ErreLuce that represents a life inside the womb. The terrazzo floor is made from cement casting combined with colorful acrylic waste, demonstrating how ordinary materials are seen as nothing but extraordinary when they are processed in the new way. 

Utilized as a public retail of sustainable products, the installation space is made to sink to remind the feeling of a mother's cradle, where people can sit and chill on the pedestal that surrounds it, while shopping and experiencing the space at the same time. The building is constructed with a knock down system that makes it possible to move to another location, with passive cooling is applied with an operable glass partition that allows natural cross ventilation inside the building.

In an exploration of motherhood journey through an art installation, a companion website made by Antikode, featuring the moments captured by photographers Carol Kuntjoro and Janji, as well as words by Typerfect, became a digital way in amplifying the messages. This spirit of collaboration has brought the campaign of solidarity resilience to be heard, demonstrated, and instilled in the current society both in physical and digital form.