Seden Lai (Seden's Workshop)

Seden is an artist and designer working in Toronto. Integrating foraged previously discarded objects with materials like paper, metal, and fabric, she responds instinctively to material fragments embedded in the every day. Her practice embraces the messages that may be hidden within the mundane; tracing connections between singular moments and cyclical returns.

"By engaging in material practices and craft making, I meditate on the complex nature of time and draw attention to the beauty of impermanence. My choice of using paper, a material that is often perceived as delicate and impermanent, is transformed into intricate, three-dimensional sculptures that take on inspiration from nature’s cycles, like seasons marked by changes in light and plants. In this process, I am drawn to how everyday materials, often overlooked, can reveal unexpected meaning through transformation and time. Employing a hybrid process of handcraft and digital fabrication, I experiment with colour, form, and composition, along with paper engineering techniques like pleating, folding, and scrunching to produce unexpected forms from simple materials."