In her design research, Dana Saez explores physical and expressive potential of different materials — from textile to ceramics – through their interactions. Through her ingenious approach to the sculptural medium, combining both traditional techniques and digital fabrication, Saez plays out the tension between the organic and the synthetic, the analogue and the digital. Her attempts to transcend the inherent properties of various materials often result in seemingly counterintuitive compounds, such as brittle cotton or soft porcelain. 

Saez’s works locate themselves somewhere on the spectrum between sculpture and design, never belonging fully to either of those categories. They testify to their own formation process and offer the promise of becoming. But they are much more than just tangible records of an ongoing experiment; each of those objects demonstrates its very haptic presence, defined by its shape, texture, colour, and plasticity.

The site specific projects play an important role in Saez’s practice. While intervening in a given architectural context, she draws inspiration from pre-existing structures and materials, which become the starting point for the design process. Also in her studio-based practice, Saez often makes use of found objects characterised by curious physical properties. By means of 3D scanning and printing, she is able to ‘translate’ their physical presence into a digital design and then into the sculptural medium.

Even though Saez’s material research develops through reiteration, the outcome differs every time. Taking into account certain unpredictability of material and errability of technology, her working process is as methodical as it is serendipitous; each deviation from the design becomes embraced as part of the work. This kind of digital and material ‘mutation’ accounts not only for  the evolution-like inception of the works but also for their semi-organic appearance. Indeed, at first sight, many of Saez’s pieces come across as natural formations and only a closer look may reveal a subtle digital footprint. 

Dana Saez  studied Architecture at the University of Buenos Aires, followed by a postgraduate course in Architectural Research. She was an artist-in-residence at, among others, European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC). Her work has been exhibited in Buenos Aires, Germany, and the Netherlands. She is an associate researcher & PhD candidate at the Chair of Structures and Structural Design at the RWTH-Aachen University.

— by Alicja Melzacka