Female Coffee table

Four-panel artwork showing colorful abstract paintings and pencil sketches of a rocky landscape with trees, labeled with color and shading notes.
Four-panel artwork showing colorful abstract paintings and pencil sketches of a rocky landscape with trees, labeled with color and shading notes.

Sydney Anmuth
Process Drawings: Female Coffee Table, 2022
Charcoal and pastel on paper
12 × 16 in.

Across four drawings, I studied the relationship between the table’s curved structure, colored surfaces, and projected shadows. Charcoal established the framework and its contours, while pastel allowed me to explore the interaction of yellow, green, and blue. These studies guided the design before cutting and welding, making light and shadow part of the work from its earliest stages.

Abstract modern coffee table with translucent yellow and blue glass panels and a sculptural tangled metal-wire base
Abstract modern coffee table with translucent yellow and blue glass panels and a sculptural tangled metal-wire base

Sydney Anmuth
Female Coffee Table, 2022
Welded metal and colored acrylic
10 × 5 in.
Coffee table maquette

In Female Coffee Table, I explore the relationship between the female body and the objects that occupy domestic space. I developed a welded metal maquette whose curved, open framework remains visible beneath planes of colored acrylic. Light passes through the panels, extending the structure into a composition of colored shadows.

I chose yellow to reference the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, while green expresses hope. I conceived the blue shadow as a gesture toward a future less defined by gendered expectations. Through transparency and exposed structure, I make visibility central to the work, using the familiar form of a table to consider autonomy, representation, and the space women occupy.