STUDIO Barnes

ON/
Completed 2021

ON/ is an immersive installation that synergizes Lexus’ core values of craftsmanship and human centered design. Inspired by the clean geometries of LF-Z Electrified Concept car, a full sized wire frame silhouette of the vehicle is suspended from the ceiling. Embedded with LED lights, the car highlights critical design elements. Surrounding the perimeter of the wireframe installation is bespoke furniture and two electrified swings.

Client: Lexus
Collaborators: RAD Lab
Fabrication: Matchless Build, High Order
Photography: Steve Benisty

Filed under:
Installation, Furniture

Wear this robe, let it comfort you
Completed 2021 

Wear this robe, let it comfort you, is a display of intricate clothes that explore themes of domesticity, vulnerability and extravagance. Garments are suspended in the storefront as if hung from a laundry line. Color palettes are derived from common household items in the Black home and patterns are inspired by collective activities. Gather in front of the window as if watching linen sway from the porch.

Client: Oolite Arts
Photography: Pedro Wazzan

Filed under:
Installation

You Can Always Come Home
Completed 2021

You Can Always Come Home is a short film directed by Juan Matos and commissioned by the 2021 Architectural League Prize. The film explores the domestic realm through the eyes of young children in Miami.

Narrated with poetry by Arsimmer McCoy and Reginald O’Neal, the film highlights the joy, ritual, family, love, celebration,a nd culture that ismade in the home through Black spatial occupation of the kitchen and front porch.

Directed & Edited by: Juan Matos
Produced by: Monica Sorelle
Executive Producer: Germane Barnes

Click here to view film

Filed under:
Film

A Spectrum of Blackness
Completed 2021

A Spectrum of Blackness is an acknowledgment of the broad possibilities of origin, and therefore of cultural influence, present in this distinctively Black city. This project aims to mine oral histories of Miami’s most prominent Black ethnicities and, through the use of multi-dimensional digital and analog collage processes, (de-) and reconstruct their suppressed narratives. Blackness constructed Miami’s physical and cultural landscapes.

Client: Museum of Modern Art, NY
Photography: Naho Kubota

Filed under:
Installation

Block Party
Completed 2021

This installation is born from Chicago’s rich history of annual block parties that provide necessary resources to vulnerable and engaged residents, particularly on the South and West Sides. These gatherings are self-funded, self-organized, and self-policed. They are an example of the many acts of civic responsibility that occur routinely in disenfranchised neighborhoods when residents take matters into their own hands. A certifiable act of celebratory vigilantism, the block party does not obey traffic regulations, it does not obey permit jurisdiction, and it most certainly does not obey traditional urban principles. These characteristics of community and accountability inspired the Studio’s project in the North Lawndale community.

Client: Chicago Architecture Biennial
Collaborators: Shawhin Roudbari, Iker Gil, WACA, Open Architecture Chicago, Freedom House
Fabrication: BKE Designs
Photography: MAW Photos

Filed under:
Installation, Architecture