The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts Stainless-steel S. Mestrom 2025
Body-defined structural limits:An Inverted Portrait of Absence This table holds space for a body that isn’t there, but whose presence defines every dimension. It is built around the idea of me, waiting to be completed by the weight it was designed to carry. The structure exists as a precise negative space—engineered around the weight and dimensions of my 70kg body, yet holding only air.
This is furniture as inverse portrait. Instead of capturing my form, it creates the conditions necessary to support it. The finite element analysis (FEA) doesn’t just show structural limits—it reveals how my physical existence shapes the material world around me, even in my absence. These biomechanical design constraints serve to further humanise and soften the industrial character of the stainless steel material.
With Andrew Gilding, dir Blue Mountain Steel
Finite Element Analysis of this Cantilevered Table This finite element analysis shows how we tested my cantilever table design to make sure it could hold my 70kg body weight at the unsupported edge.
What the diagram shows:
Color mapping: Blue areas show low stress, while red and yellow show high stress. The critical stress points are where the table surface meets the support structure
Mesh pattern: The wireframe shows we analysed the entire structure thoroughly
Load testing: I simulated my actual body weight (70kg) to test real-world conditions
Support system: The analysis shows how weight transfers through both vertical support panels
Why this matters: This analysis demonstrates that this table design is safe and won’t fail when I use it (or stand on it!). The stress patterns confirm that loads travel properly from the cantilever edge through the support structure.
We designed this table specifically for my body – it’s literally engineered around my physical presence. The computational analysis ensures the unconventional cantilever design works without traditional four-leg support, creating furniture that’s both functional and personally tailored to me.
“The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts” continues my artistic investigation of the female form while pushing my practice into new material and conceptual territories. Where my previous bronze and concrete sculptures created abstract feminine figures that function as outdoor seating—merging body and environment—this stainless steel table translates that bodily dialogue into a more architectonic language.
The table’s carefully engineered planes create a visual paradox of weightlessness, echoing the feminine body’s capacity for both strength and apparent effortlessness. This perceptual play demands the viewer’s physical movement around the piece, maintaining my practice’s commitment to embodied engagement where meaning emerges through the viewer’s corporeal relationship with form.
Through innovative hand-sanding techniques, I’ve transformed industrial stainless steel—typically perceived as cold and impersonal—into a surface with unexpected tactile warmth. This material subversion parallels my longstanding exploration of how abstract feminine forms can challenge conventional perceptions through multi-sensory engagement, inviting touch that dissolves boundaries between functional object and sculptural presence.
Make Award Submission 2025
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts
Stainless-steel
S. Mestrom 2025
Body-defined structural limits: An Inverted Portrait of Absence
This table holds space for a body that isn’t there, but whose presence defines every dimension. It is built around the idea of me, waiting to be completed by the weight it was designed to carry. The structure exists as a precise negative space—engineered around the weight and dimensions of my 70kg body, yet holding only air.
This is furniture as inverse portrait. Instead of capturing my form, it creates the conditions necessary to support it. The finite element analysis (FEA) doesn’t just show structural limits—it reveals how my physical existence shapes the material world around me, even in my absence. These biomechanical design constraints serve to further humanise and soften the industrial character of the stainless steel material.
With Andrew Gilding, dir Blue Mountain Steel
Finite Element Analysis of this Cantilevered Table
This finite element analysis shows how we tested my cantilever table design to make sure it could hold my 70kg body weight at the unsupported edge.
What the diagram shows:
Why this matters: This analysis demonstrates that this table design is safe and won’t fail when I use it (or stand on it!). The stress patterns confirm that loads travel properly from the cantilever edge through the support structure.
We designed this table specifically for my body – it’s literally engineered around my physical presence. The computational analysis ensures the unconventional cantilever design works without traditional four-leg support, creating furniture that’s both functional and personally tailored to me.
“The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Her Parts” continues my artistic investigation of the female form while pushing my practice into new material and conceptual territories. Where my previous bronze and concrete sculptures created abstract feminine figures that function as outdoor seating—merging body and environment—this stainless steel table translates that bodily dialogue into a more architectonic language.
The table’s carefully engineered planes create a visual paradox of weightlessness, echoing the feminine body’s capacity for both strength and apparent effortlessness. This perceptual play demands the viewer’s physical movement around the piece, maintaining my practice’s commitment to embodied engagement where meaning emerges through the viewer’s corporeal relationship with form.
Through innovative hand-sanding techniques, I’ve transformed industrial stainless steel—typically perceived as cold and impersonal—into a surface with unexpected tactile warmth. This material subversion parallels my longstanding exploration of how abstract feminine forms can challenge conventional perceptions through multi-sensory engagement, inviting touch that dissolves boundaries between functional object and sculptural presence.