Aswoon® | Artists For Function - interior architecture pieces, wall panels and decorative crafts in Brooklyn

Art & Entertainment
Artists For Function in the Navy Yard
by Jennifer Needleman (jenn@brooklyneagle.net)
published in print 03-16-2004, online 03-17-2004

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD - After years of producing furniture, interior architecture pieces, wall panels and decorative crafts for the insider set of the design industry, Susan Woods is ready for some show and tell. As the namesake for her Brooklyn Navy Yard studio, Woods has been hard at work for years learning how to find that happy place where form meets function, and as of February 27th, the public now has a place to check out the goods.

Aswoon, a "design and fabrication collective" and an outcropping of the Susan Woods Studio, features a showroom which displays the work of several affiliated artists, designers and craftspeople. The Susan Woods Studio, which encompasses an impressive space on the second floor of a building deep in the Navy Yard, is equipped for work in wood and metal. In addition to using the space for her own work (one-of-a-kind objects, sculptures, industrial prototypes and the like), Woods has taken on the consuming task of coordinating a loose team of other artists in order to tackle larger commissions.

Aswoon, which had been emerging organically for several months before the opening of the showroom, already has a few impressive items on its CV, including the raved-about drop ceiling in the downtown Manhattan super-club, Plaid. Aswoon's work at Plaid, the construction of which Woods remembers with more than a single sigh of exhaustion, is an innovative matrix of bowed and latticed wood that seems to splash across the ceiling like a breaking wave.

"Aswoon works on several tiers," said Woods, who has an impressive CV of her own, including half a lifetime of professional training at renowned institutions like the Montserrat College of Art, the Sculpture Center and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

"We have designers who make objects," continued Woods, "We do large-scale jobs like the nightclub which involves several people - from the engineer to CAD workers to craftspeople."

Woods sees her latest venture as a way to efficiently capitalize on the varied skills of the people she has met through her own work. Woods also intends to promote Aswoon through scheduled events at bars and galleries throughout the city.

Although the difficulty of actually getting inside the Navy Yards might make Aswoon a little bit of an insider's club, Woods is hoping that more "regular people" take the opportunity to come down to the showroom.

"I would love to have visitors from the public," said Woods, because for many years she has dealt directly with industry professionals -interior decorators, architects, gallery owners and the like. Woods' style is both highly well-groomed and entirely on target. She uses recycled or discarded materials - remainder scraps from the lumberyard and the flimsy particle board/ply wood made for merchandise crates. Her designs are modern but not sleek, crafty but not quaint, woodsy but refined. Having trouble picturing this aesthetic? That's because it's unusual - and has emerged from years of hard work - Woods spent her extended time at school "building the figure, up and down."

Woods has constructed, for instance, a screen made from handfuls of wood chips affixed to each other in a roughly two-dimensional way and framed traditionally with solid wood edges. She has made art out of a wood panel, also framed like a painting, which can be used as a "wallcovering" for restaurants, businesses or homes, and makes an understated comment about the relationship between high-art and design. She finds new textures and patterns by stripping away layers of ply wood, exposing glue and its effects on the natural material.

"It's all very landscapey," said Woods, "my work is very painterly, even my sculptures." The two-dimensionality of Woods' work is more than just an obvious trademark - it makes for an easy segue into the more business oriented world of interior and industrial design. After steadily moving from fine arts into the world of crafts, Woods came to a conclusion."I decided that if I'm going to go craft, I'm going to go big. I'm going to make everything big and everyone is going to be impressed," Woods told the Eagle.

It seems the tactic has worked. Woods and Aswoon have been featured in The New York Times, Elle Décor, Time Out New York, Paper Magazine and The Daily News, just to name a few.

Some of the prototype items that are available or soon to be available through Aswoon are a fish tank-turned toilet, a chair that becomes a shower, several modern pieces of furniture, paintings, and household items like lamps and decorations.

Although you need an appointment to see Aswoon in the flesh, you can certainly visit www.aswoon.com for a little taste, or to get more information on Susan Woods and her entourage of design professionals.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
February 16, 2004

Art & Entertainment
Artists For Function in the Navy Yard

back