Kristin at work at Hyeres
photo Miguel Villalobos
Dear Shaded Viewers,
DP: Can you give me a bit of your history?
KB: I was born and raised in MI where I was very sickly as a child. I grew up, and eventually went to school at NYU for a BA in Art history and Ceramic Sculpture and then to Pratt Institute for a Masters Degree in Interior Design. I spent some time studying in Paris and Copenhagen in the interim. I now live and work in NY.
DP: And about your work? From your website it looks like you do a multitude of things from art direction to packaging, to interiors?
KB: I am interested in creative problem solving and making things, I suppose the scale and nature of the materials used is always secondary to the former.
DP: Tell me about the Priests and Twins Sculpture Series and the Tokyo coca cola vending machines.
KB: The Priests & Twins come from dream imagery. I have very vivid dreams and I went to see a Jungian analyst some years ago and after that began to incorporate my dream imagery into my work. The vending machines were inspired by a Record sleeve from the mid 70’s. It was released by a Paris based record label called Patchwork. The album was ” 34. Energie.” I envisioned the record sleeve animating and hatching a pixel man to ferry you through your purchase/consumption of a coke.
DP: How do you go from interiors to accessories?
KB: I always begin by asking myself what something should feel like and then I go from there.
DP: What has been your most challenging project?
KB: Designing for my own place and trying not destroy my studio in the process. It is imperative that I make a huge mess before I can reign it in.
DP: Do you have any architect or design icons?
KB: Gaetano Pesce and Eliel Saarinen
Kristin and Graham
DP: How did you meet Graham and what was your involvement in his Hyeres project? You know him since you were teenagers, right? Where did you grow up and did you both move tio NYC at about the same time?
KB: I designed the accessories for Graham’s collection. We met when we were about 16, we were driving in between high school campuses and had a collision with a tree. No one was hurt. The only casualty was a rear view mirrror. We re-met in NYC years later and discovered that we share a very special creative sycronicity.
Chinatsu and Kristin
DP: WHat was the Hyeres experience like for you, ups and downs?
KB: Up, up, up.
The Villa Noilles was such a remarkable backdrop to the festival; it is an exquisitely conceived building, it’s rhythm is like breathing, not to mention to have so many creative humans dashing about the medieval sized coridoors. Very good juju. Graham, Chinatsu, and Fumi are wizzards. I feel very privledged to have been part of such a creative caldron.
DP:If you were not doing what you are doing now, what would you dream to do?
KB: My dream is to live a creative life and make lots of different kinds of things and if I had to have another dream then I would be in big trouble.
Kristin Barron www.kriest.com
Later,
Diane
