The Vanity table
Hi Lisa here! Every year I visit the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven to be up-to-date on the newest design projects and the latest work of the students at the design academy of Eindhoven.
Walking around Dutch Design Week I discovered: A seat at the Vanity Table
The Vanity with used products caught my attention right away. It looked slightly dirty, but also as If I was visiting my grandmother’s vanity that stood there in all her faded glory. Beauty products always put this spell on me, so naturally I navigated towards the bit dark vanity.
When I got closer, I also noticed a laptop in the corner of the installation. With the magic of 5 brush strokes across the screen with my cursor. I entered this digital beauty world: The Vanity Table.world.
So what’s about this zombiesque vanity with used beauty products that lured me and many others in?
Let’s have a chat with the mastermind behind: A seat at the Vanity Table and The Vanity Table, Ava Asaadi, a graduation student at the design academy of Eindhoven who is fascinated by beauty.
So ava… tell us Why are you fascinated by beauty?
I guess it's because the women in my family, many of whom have a role to play in the beauty industry, raised me in a setting where beauty was celebrated in a very real and open way. I would spend a lot of my after-school time with my mother, who runs her own beauty salon, and she would try out different facial treatments on me, which I hated at the time but now of course am so appreciative for. And I'm sure my Iranian heritage has influenced me greatly, as we used to visit family in Iran every summer. Beauty is very important in that context because it was through our communal acts of practicing beauty that we were able to connect across generations. Not to mention the salon culture; you could easily spend an entire day switching between stations: brows - hair - nails, and so on.
Can you explain your Graduation concept?
A Seat at the Vanity Table investigates the alternative side of beauty and explores how beauty is a radical act of self-care. My desire for a community to discuss these topics led me to create The Vanity Table, a cultural platform that exists both digitally and physically. Here, I can share my research and my fascination with the materials, tools, and contexts of cosmetics, as well as create interactive installations that express this. The bottom line is that we deserve better narratives that go beyond beauty standards, which are absolutely essential, but I also believe the world of beauty is so rich in information that we can certainly afford to approach it from a different perspective.
Can you tell a bit, about your research focus?
My research focuses on exploring how we create our identities and dissecting beauty phenomenas within popular culture. For instance, by unpacking the cultural history of a red lipstick, and revealing that fish scales are used to make it glossy, recognises cosmetics as raw materials through which to express our identities differently. The overarching goal is not to stigmatise cosmetics, but rather be curious about how we relate to beauty practices and to take ownership over how and what tools we use to express ourselves.
What kind of response did you get? How did it make people feel?
During Dutch Design Week, I was thrilled to receive such positive comments from gen-z's, especially young girls, because it felt like they didn't know beauty could look like this and they wanted to learn more. I noticed that there was a sense of wonder that drew them to my beauty counter at first, and many gave themselves permission to establish their relationship with beauty on their own terms. Shiny, pink objects became an effective strategy for attracting people to my work because I wanted to see how close they would get to reading the chemical compositions engraved onto the material, and many understood the humour in that. I came to understand that everyone has a unique story to share, regardless of how invested they are in beauty.
And Will you continue your project?
I would absolutely love to continue to working on The Vanity Table, which means working hard to make time and money to fund my dreams. I actually took it to a club in Amsterdam the week after which was a new experience that suited the work. I think it's a great time for collaboration; I'd like to eventually work with beauty brands and salons to take the installations and experiences to the next level. My research will continue to build on dissecting our favourite beauty tools so that we have an archive of information about what we are putting on our bodies, and to share it in a way that is tangible and understandable — rather than remaining in fine-print.
If you’re interested in learning more, you can visit The Vanity Table here: www.thevanitytable.world IG: @ava_asaadi