design odyssey beyond 2010

[Katerina Kyselica] What could say ‘modest’ more than rough sawn wood tables that reveal  the beauty of joints, or objects of iron exposing the richness of corrosion that not only envelopes the objects but actually holds them together?  Maybe a rough appearance is a designer’s response to hard times.  Maybe it is time for modesty in design.  Moss Gallery calls it ‘Butch-Craft’.

 

 

Prestigious SoHo showroom and gallery Moss, led by former fashion entrepreneur Murray Moss, has became New York City’s icon in design and art circles for introducing New Yorkers to ambitious ‘limited edition’ design.  Experimental, often shocking, their limited edition designs question the role and status of design. This fall, Moss opens with “MakeMe.” – an exhibition that seems of out order here – the objects are made of commonly available materials, inspired by vernacular (mostly Dutch) styles, they emphasize and proudly exhibit what might be called ‘process’. Mr. Moss explains his direction with “MakeMe”:

We introduced the term ‘Butch-Craft’ in an effort to articulate a phenomena: that after years of an increasingly accepted yet hard-won broader, more inclusive definition of design, liberated only recently from the once mandatory ‘form follows function’ credo, we are witnessing a kind of backlash. Not a retreat from the now-accepted practice of infusing poetic narrative into functional objects – we still want to engage more fully with our object culture, not simply regard it as a ‘tool for living’. No, rather than a retreat from this positive development, we are seeing the emergence of an alternative means of giving this ‘art content’ form and expression in functional objects. Poetic narrative no longer needs to be dressed in traditional ‘Art’ garb – it no longer needs to ‘pass’ as Art…..Function no longer is presumed to neuter any potential for Art; we accept that addressing a prosaic function doesn’t lead necessarily to a prosaic object.

“Make Me.” showcases new work from several European, established designers, such as Peter Marigold, Oscar Magnus Narud, Joost van Bleiswijk, studio drift, Marcus Tremonto, studio FormaFantasma as well as Czech studio Qubus whose work we had the pleasure of experiencing at ICFF 2010.  Most of the works seem rather rough and unfinished, communicating inspiration in vernacular terms, and exposing the viewer to the experience of the more melancholy existence of the past.

 

 

Upon entrance into the gallery, one sees a bright red set of wooden furniture that resembles a merry picnic setting. The familiarity might distract your attention from the details of each piece of the “Man Made” collection designed by Brit Peter Marigold. Each piece of furniture is made from a single log by cutting successively smaller L-profiles, thus maintaining structure while retaining as much raw material as possible. The final dimensions and form of each piece of furniture are therefore determined by the size and shape of the original log. There is no waste. And what’s up with the bright red? As Marigold puts it:

One day while in Norway I was walking through the forests and I came across a dead bird – it was possibly killed by another animal as there was red blood spilled over the snow. After a month of seeing the same colors – mostly white, black and green – to see this splash of color was quite surprising. It reminded of the etymological connection between the Russian words for beautiful and red: красивый – красный, and I thought that the reason for this must come from the same experience of seeing red after a long period of Winter.  Red = beautiful.

The rather monumental objects of the presented “Corroded Collection” by Dutch design star Joost van Bleiswijk are constructed of precisely cut, slotted and interlocked segments of a special steel alloy commonly used for outdoor sculpture; the works are constructed without the use of any joinery, such as screws or glue. The objects are then literally put out in the rain and allowed to rust, which acts as a natural glue to hold together the segments. The pieces are then coated with a transparent matt varnish.

 

 

Norwegian designer Oscar Magnus Narud also showcased the natural beauty of rust. For his new collection of tables and stools – “Keel Collection”, Narud developed an ingenious joinery solution in which keel-shaped iron legs are fitted into rough Douglas Fir table surfaces, secured underneath with a hefty Ashwood wedge, which is hammered into place with a special wooden mallet. The iron legs were left out in the elements to rust – and then moved to dry inside and ‘cure’.

 

 

„Make Me.“  isn’t all just „butch-craft“. There are the finely polished, elegant marble tables – „Eros Tables“ – of the icon of Italian design Angelo Mangiarotti. Or a light sculpture, which really caught my attention, by Dutch designers Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn of Studio Drift, who share a strong belief in the need for a collective equilibrium between the natural and the scientific. In their Fragile Future series, they epitomize this sentiment, laboriously incorporating real dandelions into a format that closely resembles a circuit board. Separated dandelion seeds are hand-glued onto small LED lights that rest in a complex arrangement on a phosphorous bronze frame; it appears as though illuminated dandelion heads are floating, and yet contained, in a three dimensional circuit board.

 

 

 

 

One could not overlook other interesting luminaries. The “Electroluminscent Sculptures” designed by American Marcus Tremonto are a continuation of his use of light as a medium to express form. The work is highly graphic and illustration-based, drawing inspiration from French Pop comics of the 1960′s.  These lights employ electroluminescent paper, which consists of an organic material that emits photons (light) when excited by an electric current, sandwiched between two thin layers of plastic.

 

 

Mr. Moss also commissioned a few artists to create functional objects for the “Make Me.” exhibition. Among them the British artist Simon Hasan made a unique collection of vessels, “The Vase Family”, of boiled leather, brass and stainless steel.  At first glance, one couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when questioning the beauty in Hasan’s art. But wait, look again – look closer at how the undulating leather interacts with the shiny, polished and rigid brass, how they are connected. The way they were made reflects Hasan’s fascinating exploration into the Medieval processes of creating Cuir Bouilli, a construction material consisting of boiled leather historically used for creating armour, has lead him to discover applications that confound preconceived notions of leather as a luxury material.

 

 

 

 

Through the examples we present in “MAKE ME.”, we acknowledge a tipping point, where art-in-design no longer needs to look like what we recognize as Art; art-in-design no longer needs to wear its art on its sleeve“, concludes Mr. Moss.

I am hesitant to agree with such a closing as it has never occurred to me that design is void of art, that it is an element of higher aesthetics if you will. On the other hand, without Mr. Moss and few other entrepreneurs who take the risk to present to the American public conceptual design, most Americans, including many design professionals, wouldn’t have the opportunity to explore beyond the mediocrity of some of the ‘affordable’ objects we encounter in our everyday lives. If Mr. Moss defines a new ‘trend’ by selecting experimental design from abroad, then so be it.

As much as the “MAKE ME” exhibit includes beautiful, humble and modest objects, it doesn’t shock and it doesn’t really bring novelty to the New York design market. It simply addresses us and touches us through familiarity with the method of construction, used materials or chosen forms. And it expresses a certain aesthetic – that of modesty.

Other related articles:

“Furniture Takes a Manly Turn”

“Design Loves a Depression” v. “Design Hates a Depression”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Design, New York City Tagged: | Conceptual, Design, Furniture, New York City, Review