Shivani Pinapotu is a spatial thinker and designer interested in how space intersects with story, society and our sense of self.


Her earliest memory of a space was a pillowfort that her aunt had built when she was young. The experience of having a space that fit her and a place to call her own fascinated her beyond measure. She has since then been driven by the impact of empathy, wonder and a story well-told, and always finds herself reaching for these virtues to position herself within a project. Her practice is, therefore, an attempt to humanise the built environment.

She holds an MDes. in Interior Studies from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she concentrated in Exhibition and Narrative Environments, and has extensive experience in architecture, interiors, exhibitions and theatre design across India and the States.

She is presently working at Home Studios, Brooklyn.

Reach out to spinapot@gmail.com or find her on Linkedin, if you have anything in mind!

WORK ︎︎︎
Moodboard / Spectatorship, Exaggeration of the mundane, Performance


  Preliminary Concept Sketches/ Trapped under the gaze, mockery


Design Process, swipe to see how the scenic plot manifests on stage







scenography

Fairview, Jackie Sibblies Drury


Fairview, in a three-act sequence, challenges notions of spectatorship and brings up questions of representation in the way black narratives are appropriated and commandeered to suit the white gaze. In unpeeling though the story of the Frazier family, Drury brings into our purview the layers of spectatorship that surround the family, and therefore, makes us complicit in the making of what unfolds. Following the cues of the conversation in Act 2 and the mockery that becomes of the family by Act 3, I draw inspiration from the circus. The design intends to supplement this layering and trapping by adapting, metaphorically, the stage to that of a circus and draws references from Cirque du Soleil. Much like Drury, the set reveals itself along with the acts to enable an understanding of the undercurrent that the story tries to bring forth.


Could the narrative force of Drury’s unpeeling of the layers of appropriation that surround and warp the Frazier family, and black narratives at large, be understood through the lens of a circus?


program scenography - academic

professor Sara Ossana

place Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI


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