Made as repaired segments of the London underground subway walls, the three panels feature a mixed media mural of symbols of hope. Featured in the panels is Mae West, images of St. Paul’s cathedral during the blitz, an RAF Spitfire, and a soap wall sign of Balham Station (the one underground station destructed during German bombings. This piece discusses the adornment of our shelters and the remembrance of traumatic events in societies.

I want to see my mountains

Using the warmth-providing material found in the British Pilots flight jackets, this sheepskin life preserver is reimagined from the form of the famous Royal Airforce ‘Mae West’ life preservers. 

Afloat with our hands in fur

Through a direct reference to Joseph Beuys’s Fettstuhl and his use of a simple chair and fat, this chair hints at design changes to London’s infrastructure and neighborhoods “blackout era” during the Blitz. Its white holly inlay against the blackened oak represents the nighttime markings made on streets and roads to help Londoners navigate the city without light. The leather wedge cushion represents some sort of safety bumper in the use of the chair while simultaneously acting as an obstacle in its use.

Wedge Chair (amidst the blackout)

Using the form of a Czech Hedgehog, an anti-vehicle defense structure most famously known from D-Day pictures, this ten-foot tall wood structure towers over viewers in an aggressive presence of the space. The most prominent beam, made from 112 traditional glass windows, houses a wooden fire pike centered in the middle of the window box. The fire pike is a copy of a London Air Raid Wardens, representing a tool of life-saving. A heroic symbol to survivors of bombings. The architectural oak beams come from a 100-year-old barn outside of Richmond, making them historically similar to what would've been the structure to some London houses. The joining of the three diagonal beams represents a collapsed structure which creates a form of defense and shelter.

Sheltered in Collapse

A Robert Gober-inspired sink takes the form of Mary Magdalene from Michelangelo’s Pieta, but instead of holding a dead Jesus, she holds a sink. Inside the sink are multiples of Sten MK2s, Britain’s most mass-produced 9mm submachine gun during WW2, cast in soap. Suspended in an oak frame that takes design inspiration from bomb-damaged portions of St. Paul's Cathedral, water is supplied to the sink from an original Air Raid Wardens stirrup pump (used originally to put out small fires from German incendiary bombs).

The Pity

Popularized by Prime Minister Churchill, Siren Suits were coveralls marketed towards families taking cover in the London underground during the nightly bombing raids as a way to stay warm and keep their clothes clean. Made from wool felt, this reimagined siren suit makes a direct reference to Joseph Beuys Felt Suit and his use of felt as a life-saving material of warmth and regenerative powers.



Siren Suit

With Changing Tides

Built from 1939 blueprints of an RAF Supermarine Spitfire, this daybed is a replica of the British plane. Here, I explore the spirit of human nature during a state of wartime survival. By viewing the current pandemic as wartime compared alongside the wartime of the 1940s Blitz in London, I create a common language between past and present to explore our survival. Through the use of the Spitfire form as a symbol of hope and the leather backrest molded off my body, I use comfort as a tool to explore personal identity during a time of survival through emotional design.

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Colin Knight

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