Weaving between words, images and materials, Leah’s work engages with the wider roles of design, using its proximity to everyday life as an opportunity to imagine and enact different ways of living, being and doing in our evermore complex modern world. Her past projects have ranged from exploring body politics and technology, to deep diving into industry issues, ecological alternatives & social responsibility. She marries this critical grounding with techniques of making to converse and connect with things that matter – both literally and figuratively.
“Womanhood can be a battlefield. A hope-filled day that becomes peppered by ‘banterous’ catcalls, accidental space invasions and destructively helpful condescension. These seemingly harmless acts add up. Scars from unseen moments hidden behind a polite smile or a measured laugh. Sometimes it’s safer to say nothing, because it’s nothing after all. Yet these tussles are still there, hindering women before they’ve even truly begun.
In moments like this, what does a woman need to lighten the load? What if she had a way to interject, to reclaim space and to push back on these daily occurrences without even uttering a word?
ARTWORK
Unencumbered, 2019
Mixed Media
POA
Unencumbered is a concept collection focused on ‘harmless’ moments of everyday sexism. It aims to highlight the invisible ways that women can be affected in run-of-the-mill situations and commonplace interactions. The collection proposes a set of worn interventions that can be used to help respond to and gently challenge those normalised instances where active protest seems trivial.”
