Sweet Sparkman Architects+CityLab-Sarasota University of Florida, Refrigerrator Doors. Installation view at Palazzo Mora, 2016.

Human Tales on Refrigerator Doors
A sculptural exhibit of stories about people impacted and inspired by the fragility and beauty of Florida.
Unique stories emanating from our Florida community address questions of (im)permanence, emerging patterns of development, citizens in action, and the role of design as a mechanism for positive change are presented as artifacts of life. They become ‘artifacts’ through the common American way of sharing and preserving personal memories and important moments in time – posting them on the ubiquitous refrigerator door – a small landscape of images, souvenirs, narratives, and other mementos symbolizing major accomplishments.
To communicate profound, diverse stories that embody the many ways our community has addressed the vulnerability and precariousness of this region, we have arranged found or reclaimed refrigerator doors into a three dimensional exhibition structure (refrigerator door totems with posted stories), to reveal the extraordinary stories hidden within our community. Inasmuch as this ordinary domestic appliance becomes the gathering place for our memories, accomplishments, and aspirations, it becomes poetically transformed through condensing and juxtaposing the stories of our lives through its physical presence.