Spiros Panigirakis: Variables & Settings

Variables originally comprised desks, doors and shirts made by Spiros Panigirakis to explore how bureaucratic systems and problematic masculinities might be expressed in the design of fashion and furniture. The project took Franz Kafka’s The Trial as a starting point, the text resonating so keenly with contemporary contexts that see authoritarian controls impose themselves on the bodies of individuals.

Variables focuses on dystopian links between the desk/office and the business shirt, examining social hierarchies in relation to dominant systems and, especially, their potential for dysfunction. Panigirakis developed and designed the shirts and embellishments with fashion designer Danielle Herbert in relation to his practice;  the construction of business shirts is presented in relation to the spatial dynamics of the office. Variables operates as both a potent critique of constructed masculinity and a whimsical representation of queer desire and agency.  

Variables is re-presented as part of Melbourne Design Week alongside Settings to blur boundaries between sculpture and functional design, 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. 

Part of Melbourne Design Week 2024.