I try and draw inspiration from everything I see, hear, smell and touch. I’m motivated by everyday life and my surroundings. My daughter inspires me in many ways. I channel a lot through music, art, design, conversations with people, walking in nature and traveling to new places. I draw from different cultures and communities to create my own unique sensibility. All of those things allow me to take in inspiration and use it in creative ways.
Silver Room
Can you talk about your practice in the light of a pandemic and sociopolitical crisis—what changed, what remains the same?
My goal is for The Silver Room to remain a beacon of hope, especially during these times. It’s important for the community to see us creating space and exuding positivity now more than ever. We reopened with a redesign of the space that offered a fresh look and feel. This serves as an inspiration from a design context but also a spiritual one. In light of everything that has happened over the past six months, we wanted to remain a resource for positivity in knowing that we will get through tough times. We’ve adapted to the virtual world of engaging and connecting with others. We’re doing what we can to mimic the in-person experience in a virtual space.
Where do you see the future of design?
The future of design will require a lot of thought about designing adaptive spaces. More designs will accommodate new standards that we are all currently trying to navigate. The more we are forced to move toward a virtual world the more in-person experience will be valued once we can gather again.
Greek-born Vasia Rigou is a Chicago-based art critic and pop culture journalist, largely on the subjects of contemporary art, design, and fashion. She moved to Chicago in 2013 to study Arts Journalism at the School of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC,) where she was awarded the New Artist Society Merit Scholarship. She grew up to appreciate art after years of carefully planned, culture-filled travel itineraries and museum-hopping around Europe with her family. During this time, she received a bachelor’s in English Literature, in her native Athens; a master’s in Media, in Nottingham, UK; and studied foreign languages—English, German, and Spanish at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her writing—reviewing museum exhibitions, gallery shows, art fairs, fashion shows, and music festivals among others—has been published nationally and internationally both in print and online. In 2017, she founded and now serves as editor-in-chief of Rainbowed.—an independently published website focused on the visual and performing arts, digital media, and popular culture. When she’s not writing about art or looking at art—wine in hand, she keeps up with Chicago’s creative entrepreneurial and startup community, makes lists for pretty much everything, drinks immense amounts of coffee and takes cross-country road trips every chance she gets.
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Design Top 5: October 2020 Museum exhibitions, Chicago landmarks open house and the Midwest’s largest residential design conference.
