SALONNIÈRE GROUP CHAT
Completed as a designer at Bodega Ltd. for the project Salonnière in 2021.
A published tête-à-tête among a few of our favorite + unexpected salonnières spanning five centuries.
Despite the salon’s etymological origin and association with French society of the 17th and 18th centuries, versions of salonnières can be found all over the world, throughout history. Salonnières bond over hybridities of public and private spheres.
Societal Role → CAREER public RECREATION private
Bodies of Knowledge → WORLDLY public SPIRITUAL private
Place → WORK public HOME private
Distribution of Writing → PUBLICATION public DIARY private
Salonnières reach across spectrums to hold public spheres in the left hand and private spheres in the right. To pull at both ends is to question binary opposition. To pull at both ends is to evoke both admiration and disrespect.
For many significant female authors throughout history, writing in a diary was encouraged as an appropriate feminine pastime, but publishing was scandalous, as it brought a recreational pursuit from the private to the public sphere. It allowed women to earn monetary and cultural value from their thoughts, feelings and ideas, but any positive popularity gained from this endeavor was often coupled with criticism.
Here, we read the direct words of nine women, whose births span five centuries, in homes across the world. Stitched together in dialogue, forming a group chat of adjacencies, they speak of frustrations and delights.
