New York Design Week + CROSSxTOYS

About this project

 ZBIÓRKA / CROWDFUNDING

 

HI!

 

I'm Domka and I have just graduated from Pedagogical University of Cracow with BA in Design. My diplom covers the subject of gender and stereotypes associated with female or male gender.

 

The project will be shown during the New York Design Week! RESPECT ME exhibition which is organized by Grouphug will take place this May in Chinatown Soup Gallery, Lower Manhattan! 

To be able to participate in the show I need your support! 

 

My other projects are available in my portfolio.

 

Aby się ze mną skontaktować, wyślij maila na adres domkaspytek@gmail.com

 

 

 

 O PROJEKCIE / ABOUT MY WORK:

 

Each of the interactive elements, through the use of different materials symbolizes a normative feature or a stereotype associated with female or male gender. For the purposes of the project, basic questionnaires were carried out. Respondents had to decide which gender do they associate with feature given in each question. According to the rules, they could choose between a woman and a man or write any other answer. Yet, in a significant number of cases, the binary division dominated.

I decided to turn these results into specific elements of the project. The first task we face while using CROSSxTOYS is to build a conventional image of a woman and a man, according to the rules attached to the set. While building totems, we use elements made of different materials symbolizing previously mentioned features.

Chosing soft, brittle, warm, firm or clean elements, we shape a woman. Choosing cold, rough, sharp, hard and scratched elements – a man. The kit also includes four, neutral parts that carry the physiological factors associated with the act of self-creation. These are: blood, sweat, tears and hair of human origin. Cast in epoxy resin, they are isolated from the external environment, reflecting the shame that we feel towards our own bodies. CROSSxTOYS users choose the gender to which they assign those four elements. If we decide to assign blood to a previously arranged male totem associating it with force or aggression, we will find out from the instruction that the block we chose also consists of a menstrual blood which is the subject of social taboo. By assigning hair to the female totem we will find out that it is not only a symbol of beauty, but in some cases also an object of a stigmatization (e.g. pubic hair) or lack of self-acceptance (e.g. gray hair). In the physiological parts, we can also find sweat – the symbol of both the fight for the perfect body and shame, as well as tears – the characteristic of an over emotional woman and the source of feeling humiliation for a man. All with the intent to make us realize that we are equally hurt by the shame associated with our own physiology and by the social constrains imposed on us into which we are trying to fit, yearning for accteptance.

The final stage of using the set is to build your own image. We make this step using the elements previously assigned by us or society as being associated with a woman or a man. This moment is the most important because it gives a proof of how much we are limited by socialization – none of us carries features which are either one hundred percent female or male. And so, the divisions imposed on us do not always reflect reality. Using CROSSxTOYS with typically masculine or feminine features, we create an image of ourselves through which we learn that that the binary system should be challenged. I hope that this project designed for those who are already socialized and those who are in the process will spark off discussions leading to a social change in the futre and healing the chronic lack of self-accteptance from which our society suffers.

The project is open. Transfering another features or stereotypes into additional elements of the kit is a still developing process.

 MATRONKI / MATRONAGES

 

Projekt objęty został matronatem przez: 

TA Fundacja

Szajn

Enter the ROOM x G'rls ROOM

 

 O WYSTAWIE / ABOUT THE SHOW

 

Check GROUPHUG's webpage to find more about the exhbition.

 

Participating in the exhibition would be a great opportunity for me to be in the center of the art world and present myself and my work to people from around the world. The exhibition is also an opportunity to take an active part in all events orginized during New York Design Week. What's more, I also have the chance to fulfill one of my biggest dreams - visit places such as MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Arts and Design or the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and many more.

 

The New York Design Week is taking place in May, so I really need your support to be able to participate in it! I count on your help in achieving the goal of showing young Polish art there! 

 

 KOSZTORYS / ESTIMATE COSTS

 

I pay myself for:

- staying in NYC

 

I need your support to pay for:

– event fee 250 PLN

– visa 560 PLN

– flight tickets 2500 PLN

– sleeping costs 2000 PLN

– insurance 250 PLN

 

 NAGRODY / AWARDS

 

Each person participating in the crowdfunding will receive a prize! Regardless if you help me by paying 1 PLN or more. For every support I will be extremely grateful! All prizes will be sent by the end of June 2018.

 

PLN 1 - or more - you can choose support with no reward

PLN 1 - or more - thanks by email

PLN 15 - or more - written acknowledgments A5

PLN 25 - or more - written acknowledgments  A4

PLN 50 - or more - a postcard with the A6 totem + written acknowledgments A4

100 PLN - or more - set of stickers with totems + written acknowledgments A4

150 PLN - or more - A6 postcard sent to your address straight from New York or a magnet from New York + written acknowledgments A4

PLN 200 - or more - signed poster with a totem in the format 50x70cm + written acknowledgments A4

350 PLN - or more - written  acknowledgments A4 + film with individual thanks recorded in New York

PLN 500 - or more - a meeting during which I will show you how the set works - you will be able to arrange your own totem, which I will photograph and provide you in the form of a signed 50x70cm poster.

 

poster examples:

thank you card examples:

postcard examples:

 

/ music used in the movie was downloaded from the Free Music Archive - Les Sans Culottes - A La Mode.

Media about this project