Spiros Panigirakis: Variables & Settings

Variables & Settings comprises two projects by Spiros Panigirakis that blur boundaries between sculpture and functional design. Variables comprises shirts and embellishments made by Panigirakis to explore how bureaucratic systems and problematic masculinities might be expressed in the design of fashion and furniture. Focusing on the dystopian links between the office and the business shirt, Variables operates as both a critique of constructed masculinity and a whimsical representation of queer desire and agency. Settings is a two-part sculptural work that refers to the context of the gallery space and derives from specific architectural details of the original home of Sarah Scout Presents in Bourke Street, Melbourne. In its new home the work functions as both sculpture and functional object, extending Panigirakis’s interest in how institutional structures and subjective identities frame one another.