Steve Bowden

Heidelburger Grill - 2004 - Mixed Media grill - 18 x 18 x 20” prints - 18 x 20” This work is spawned from a workshop with the Metalsmithing Department. The objective of the assignment was to cross-pollinate. Get metalsmiths to engage in typography and designers with materiality. For critique, we served lunch. The Heidelburger Grill empowers every backyard chef with a voice. You too can own the tool to enable you and your friends to eat your words. A collaboration with Peter Evonuk, Lauren Zoll & Jennifer Cordova

Polemic Furniture - TERRANOVA LOUNGE 2004 - Pine, Steel & Eyepiece, 80 x 30 x 30” Straddling a line between the worlds of ordinary and chic, the visually “uncomfortable” Terranova Lounger cradles you in the doors of perception. A collaboration with Peter Evonuk. ------------------------------------------------------------- HEAVY LIGHT 2005 - Cement & Steel, 8 x 12 x 24” This tribute to the mundane is a heavyweight contender in ambient industrial lighting. Consumer aware, the Heavy Light is designed to be affordable and easily assembled. Forthcoming models include sconces and chandeliers. BYOB: $1.50 Home Depot Gift Card included. A collaboration with Peter Evonuk. ------------------------------------------------------------- COFFEE BRICK 2004 - Laminated Maple Plywood, 18 x 18 x 36” This plywood coffee table/nightstand holds many of the characteristics of its smaller cement cousin; mass produced, highly modular, resiliant in use and extremely heavy.

LOCAL - After reading the book “Tools for Conviviality” by Ivan Illich, we were asked to develop a product, technique, or method that helps individuals, collectively, to lead a creative, autonomous life: what the philosopher Ivan Illich calls a “convivial tool.” Rather than a product for passive consumption, make a “product” that increases another individual’s power to produce or create. Consider domestic, communal or civic settings for the “tool,” not only institutional or industrial settings. Develop this tool for our own society, not for a distant “Third World.” The modular identity of LOCAL provides a wide cross-section of individuals with a singular voice. LOCAL businesses can share advertising and marketing costs, clients and customers, reduce health insurance costs, and gain other large business discounts. A LOCAL currency was developed as an additional incentive to help sustain the partnership by keeping money in the community. LOCAL combats monoculture with collective autonomy. The resulting brand was selected to be exhibited in the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. A collaboration with Kelly Cullinan.

Museum of Capital Punishment - In an exploration of potential museum experiences, the museum of capital punishment was invented. “last meals” is an installation that attempts to bring first hand experience to the table through 310unique portraits of those executed in the state of Texas. The contents of the menu are comprised of the actual meals requested by prisoners killed on death row thus far. The trays portray a vivid portrait of the prisoners and the incidents that led them to their prosecution. The experience is further pushed, as one sits at confined dining units to digest the full scope, complexity, and finality of that moment. For those who do not have the appetite for this experience there are plenty of declined meals. Collect all 310 souvenir trays. A collaboration with Erik Strom.

Cranbrook Art Museum - A wide range of exhibition designs, peripheral promotions and signage for the Cranbrook Art Museum. Cranbrook Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located at the heart of Cranbrook Educational Community, one of the nation's greatest architectural complexes. The Art Museum offers both a glimpse into Cranbrook's remarkable past through its collection and tours of the campus while offering changing exhibitions of the finest contemporary art