Design x Friendship (2015) is a participatory performance and conversation-based exhibition exploring friendship as a form of human solidarity in a world shaped by crises and forces of division.
Presented at XY Atelier Gallery in New York during the week of NYCxDESIGN, the project invited visitors to engage in one-on-one conversations with artist and designer Yo-E Ryou, reflecting on how friendship influences and inspires our relationships with design, creativity, and one another.
Through dialogue, drawing, and writing, participants translated their conversations into visual traces that gradually accumulated on the gallery walls, forming a collective archive of thoughts and experiences.
Moving between visual art, design, and performance, Design x Friendship approached conversation as both an artistic medium and a creative practice, exploring how interpersonal encounters could foster mutual understanding and collective meaning-making.
The project evolved from Design by Friendship, first presented at Seoul Design Festival in 2012, extending Ryou's ongoing exploration of dialogue, participation, and the social dimensions of creative practice.
About the Artist
Yo-E Ryou is a Korean visual artist and designer whose practice explores the intersections of visual art, design, communication, and social interaction. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and formerly a designer at Pentagram in New York, Ryou approaches dialogue and participation as creative processes, exploring how interpersonal relationships can shape collective experiences and forms of expression.
Design x Friendship
Yo-E Ryou
Saturday, May 9th, 2015
xy atelier gallery
81 Hester st. (Orchard & Hester St)
New York, NY
