Fernando Laposse Lecture

Fernando Laposse, Hair of the Dog, 2023, agave fibers, brass, plywood, 76.75 x 45.25 x 34.25 inches, edition of 8. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Fernando Laposse.

Join us for a lecture by designer Fernando Laposse followed by an audience Q & A.

Doors open at 5:45 p.m. Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Explore the Visiting Artists Program homepage for visitor information, recordings of past events, and more.

Born in 1988, Fernando Laposse trained at Central Saint Martins as a product designer. Laposse specializes in transforming humble natural materials into refined design pieces. He has worked extensively with overlooked plant fibers such as sisal, loofah, and corn leaves. His works are the result of extensive research which culminates into objects of “endemic design” where materials and their historical and cultural ties to a particular location and its people take center stage. He often works with Indigenous communities in his native Mexico to create local employment opportunities and raise awareness about the challenges they face in a globalized world.

His projects are informative and educational and touch on topics such as sustainability, the loss of biodiversity, community dissolution, migration, and the negative impacts of global trade in local agriculture and food culture. He does so by documenting the issues and announcing possible resolutions through the transformative power of design.

His projects have been exhibited in the Triennale di Milano; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; Design Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; World Economic Forum; and the NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne to name a few. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Design Museum Gent, Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Laposse currently lives and works in Mexico City.

Presented in partnership with SAIC's Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects and the UIC School of Design Public Seminar Series.

This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services. The auditorium is wheelchair accessible and hearing assisted devices are available. For additional access requests, including ASL interpretation or audio description, visit saic.edu/access.