Justin Bailey

Justin Bailey is a designer/maker residing in Bloomington, Indiana where he is an Assistant Professor of foundations at Indiana University's Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design. Justin received an MFA in 3D Design from the University of Iowa and a BFA in Sculpture from Webster University. Through the design and fabrication of furniture, objects, and lighting, Justin dwells on the form, material and utility of canonical design objects such as seating, lighting and vessels. Each of his designs is a study of material pliability and gestural form, employing a range of processes including digital fabrication, woodworking, metal working to design and craft works. 

Through functional forms, I explore the potential of a surface using lightweight, gestural articulation. I consider modernist notions gleaned from trace vestiges of furniture and architecture experienced growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. Through this combination my hope is to transport users to a realm somewhere between Jules Verne’s Nautilus and the Jetson’s living room. Each design is meant to be seen as a brief glimpse into a larger, more encompassing world, but also as a lens into my craft process on closer inspection. By designing and making objects, I hope to uncover deeper ideas surrounding the effect objects have on us, as well as how we interact with our spaces and with each other.

I utilize hard yet malleable materials: wood, steel, aluminum, Corian, modified by gestural manipulations such as bending, pressing, and folding. Pushing, pulling, and shifting irregular form mixes among grids, geometry, and simple curves depict objects that appear between tactile and digital realms. Each work is a study into the interconnections and relationships among its parts, most often born from taking a simple connection, manipulation, or joining, and repeating.