Participants collaboratively design an oversized modular “marble run” using rain gutters, recycled materials, ramps and sculptural interventions. Inspired by the Surrealist exquisite corpse, each participant creates one section without knowing the complete design, resulting in an unpredictable, kinetic installation that explores collaboration, experimentation and emergent play. Designed by Queer Materials Lab Artist in Residence Eric Anthony Berdis, the dynamic design is intended to expand his sculpture practice while inviting opportunity for open-ended discussion among students, faculty and the community.

Hosted by Queer Materials Lab artist in residence, Eric Anthony Berdis. Cohosted by Fiber and Materials Study and Art Education departments.

This program is made possible by the General Activities Fund (GAF).

About Eric Anthony Berdis

Eric Anthony Berdis is a settler artist and educator. Working across fiber, installation, performance, social practice, and pedagogical research, Berdis explores how materials, collective making, and playful inquiry can foster relationships of care, belonging, and imagination. His interdisciplinary practice draws upon queer histories, early childhood pedagogies, and craft traditions to investigate how collaborative artmaking can become a site of resistance, storytelling, and world-building. Influenced by DIY culture, community arts, and material agency, Berdis creates immersive installations, participatory workshops, quilts, banners, sculptures, and performances that invite audiences to make, play, and think alongside one another. His recent work examines themes of childhood, ecological relationships, collective memory, and more-than-human ways of knowing, embracing making as both an artistic and pedagogical practice.