Meet Rachel Shillander of Canoga Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Shillander.

Hi Rachel, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I loved math, art, and science growing up, which lead me to pursue an education in architecture. Right out of high school I attended the University of Arizona, for my B.Arch, immediately followed by a M.Arch from UCLA. Straight from grad school I went to work for two of my teachers at UCLA, Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of Ball Nogues Studio. I was there doing large scale art installation and fabrication for about a year before working for Marmol Radziner for about 7 years, bifurcated by a 1 year leave to work for Buro Happold in NYC. After 7 years at Marmol Radziner, I pursued my own practice with a partner in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We built a house of our own design for friends in the Osage Hills. While in Tulsa I had a studio space where I worked on large scale hollow cementitious and masonry sculpture works with stone collected from the same Osage Hills. Eventually I made my way back to LA, working for a general contractor as a job-site architect in the High End Residential Housing sector, while simultaneously running a studio practice. I made a series of Masonry lamps in 2018 which turned a few interior design studios and showrooms in LA onto my work, but in 2020 is when I turned one of my hollow cementitious chair sculptures into The Disco Chair. That piece got my work a lot of attention, and I have been able to make some amazing work because of it. The work ranges from copper lighting (and now seating), masonry furniture, disco chairs, cabinet hardware, and now even some jewelry etc. I never really tied myself to one medium, so I have a lot of freedom in my practice.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Time, space, and money are always the struggle, right? I have been fortunate that I do not have to rely solely on my creative practice to survive. I have a construction / architecture job that I love, and which continues to inform my studio work. Having this income, schedule, and rigor have allowed me to make my studio works with the utmost freedom and knowledge base. However, the time to make, space to make, and money to make are always something that needs to be considered, and there never seems to be quite enough to get everything you want done.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am most known known for the 2020 Disco Chair, but my practice spans buildings, furniture, lighting, hardware, and objects. My work explores domestic design, construction, and building technology, transforming architectural ideas into tangible forms. Through the objectification of architectural ideas the studio uses familiar materials and traditional building systems to examine ethics, nostalgia, place, time, and the complexities of human relationships. The result is a body of work that bridges theory and tactility—semi-functional maquettes and full-scale constructions that make abstract concepts physically accessible.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
They can reach out to the studio! studio@rachelshillander.com As well as follow along on social media. @LA.LLand on both Instagram .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rachelshillander.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la.lland/

Image Credits
portrait – Ye Rin Mok