Stefanie Hessler x The Feejee Mermaid
2024

“CT: We've ended on an interesting slippage between object and subject that mermaids and oceanic work afford. In wet environments, this binary is simultaneously magnified but also dismantled completely. Humans at sea need incredible machinery and equipment, almost to the point where we become objects and no longer subjects, magnifying the politics of who even gets counted as a being at sea. 

SH: I love that messiness because I think that that's really where we're at. Everything is messy, and acknowledging that and then saying, “Where do we go from this point of messiness?” is what can lead to productive conversations and approaches. And acknowledging that being in this messiness, and still being able to act from within it, is also a position of privilege.”

Interview by CoCo Tin
Edited by Isabel Lewis, Adrea Piazza, and Andrea Sandell
Designed by Siyu Mao
Printed by Grafiche Veneziane

Pairs 04
Harvard Graduate School of Design