laura rossi
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Expanded Practice: Design through Objects, Time, Gender and Society
I am interested in the role that design plays in the larger system of interdependencies that comprises contemporary culture: Why we do the things we do, why we think the way we think, and how we came to be the we way are. Graphic Design and Typography are the means through which I approach, reflect on, and give form to these relationships – from language, to alphabets, to ornamentation, to craft, to ideas about the feminine, to Modernism, to nation building, to cultural propaganda, to education, to technology.
To make sense of the present and speculate about the future, it is essential to look at the past — and history is full of parallel stories. My work at VCFA has been less about answers and more about asking questions: What are those stories, and what do they mean in relation to the present? Because I am a woman, I am particularly interested in women’s stories, which are sometimes missing from the general established narrative. On an individual level, unraveling the many constructs that shape us, helps me better understand myself and the world around me; on a more global scale, if we understand how things came to be, and the motivations behind our social constructions, perhaps we can begin to see that things are not fixed, but fluid and malleable, so that we can change them for the better.
Laura Rossi is a graphic designer, writer, curator, and type designer with a background in Art History. Originally from Puerto Rico, she has been living in the US for the past 12 years and currently resides in Houston, TX.