For the Architecture Festival in London the V&A hosted seven buildings amongst some of the most impressive collection rooms in the museum. Nineteen architects were originally invited to submit proposals for the project, curated by Abraham Thomas, to create spaces that examined refuge and retreat. All of the buildings are accessible to the surprise of visitors- The Fujimori Beetle House rocks every time one of the allocated six spaces is climbed into. The buildings are both secretive and bold in presence. Studio Mumbai Architects built ‘In Between Architecture’ in the Casts Court, a space full of enormous figures and replicas. The building camouflages itself with a divoted plaster treatment, distinguished only stylistically yet remaining unobstrusive and affectionate towards the looming study replicas of David and company.
Studio Mumbai Architects in the Cast Courts
Cast Courts with SMA
David
From the inside
Interior with plaster cast tree
SMA Cast Courts
Terunobu Fujimori’s Beetle House was hosted in the Medieval & Rennaissance Room. The structure, in keeping with Fujimori’s style, possesses many dreamlike and spiritual sensitivities. This one in particular is a close replica of another Beetle House that he created in Japan, spanning two tree’s in the forrest. He built the structure from pine trees, and the exterior was charred onsite in the museum. The interior is grained with smaller bits of the charred wood, adorned with sparse belongings, a small bicycle to represent transport to the home, and a teaset designed by the Danish artist Malene Hartmann Rasmussen. Fujimori, since the opening, has hosted several tea ceremonies ( for six) in the miniscule structure. The whimsical nature of the structure is further enhanced by the wooden medieval spiral-staircase-to-nowhere, and the menacing grid of clay heads mounted onto the nearby brick wall.
Terunobu Fujimori's Beetle's House
Beetle's House in the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries
Descent
Malene Hartmann Rasmussen with her teaset designed for the Beetle House
Charred Walls
Foot Traffic
In the John Madejski Garden lived a literal treehouse designed by Helen & Hard Architects from Stavanger, Norway. The house, titled ‘Ratatosk’ was built from splayed trees, becoming more basket-like and woven as the structure developed in height.
Ratatosk in the John Madejski Garden
Ratatosk
Ratatosk Proposal Model
At the bottom of the National Art Library stairs lived the “Ark” built by Rintala Eggertsson Architects from Oslo and Bodo, Norway. The building allowed three people in at a time to browse books at leisure. The books themselves acted as the interior walls, spine-in, and also as the exterior shell of the building, striating the structure with faded pages.
Ark designed by Helen & Hard
Reader
Ark Detail
Interior
From the entrance to the National Art Library
Top Floor
The gooooorgeous National Art Library
On the second floor entering the main architecture galleries lived the Inside/ Outside Tree designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects from Tokyo. This was a large faceted structure of plexi-glass which created a semi-enclosed looking glass for one viewer.
Inside Outside Tree
Inside/ Outside
Sou Fujimoto Architects
This is being posted extremely late as this show was held in March! Impact was an amazing showcase of collaborative work between the Royal College of Art Design Interactions department and research teams from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). All of the work was based on the interaction of science & technology with humanitarian progression. The work was all shown with display models and some working prototypes along with the statements from each team. They have an excellent website which has more information on all of this research and also about where the show is travelling. All of the text below has been quoted from the statements found in the Impact Show catalogue which was published in conjunction with the opening at the RCA.
- Phosporous Umbrella
- Urine Apron for the collection of phosphates
The above two images are from Astronomical Bodies, created by Michael Burton and Dr. Terence Kee.
“Did life on earth emerge from key chemical elements received from outer space? If so, the universe can be seen as bio-friendly and life as a natural part of the universe. If we think of ourselves as astro-biological products of galactic composition, should we continue to colonise space with life? What if we collect phospate from our urine and kidney stones, and create meteorites? These could be sent into space to seed life on other habitable planets, initiating a process of self-assembly evolution.”
- Astronomical Bodies Umbrella at the Reception
Below are images from “Cellularity” created by James King, Prof Cameron Alexander, Prof Lee Cronin, Prof Ben Davis and Dr Natalio Krasnogor.
“Is biology technology? Are we ready for industries and products based on organisms and cells? To deal with questions such as these we need a new understanding of how living and non-living things differ from one another. The Cellularity Scale is intended to be a first draft of a definition of life that is applicable in a future where we no longer ask whether omething is dead or alive, but instead, how alive it is.”
Detail
Detail
Detail
Detail
(Below) “Pathogen Hunter” created by Susana Soares, Mikael Metthey, Prof Calum McNeil & Prof Colin Harwood.
“This design project explores how disease monitoing might change our perception of health etiquette Surveilance personnel- Pathogen Hunters- would be trained to use very particular tools to manage infectious outbreaks. But no matter how clean we are or how healthy we feel, we still carry billions of microbes on our bodies. Will we change our behavior to prevent the spread of pathogens to others? What will the consequences be for our social conventions?
Pathogen Hunters
PH Detail
PH Detail
(Below) “Fabulous Fabbers” Created by David Benque, Prof Marc Desmulliez & David Topham.
“Factories are moving away from the fringes and coming to town! Advances in micro-scale engineering point to a global-scale revolution where local, disposable factories produce high-tech good on out very doorstep. What form might this new way of ‘making things’ take within out urban landscape? from garage- workshops to circus-like structures, form street vendor stalls to vagabond encampment, these new factories could also bring back ownership of the tools of production.”
Fabulous Fabbers
FF Detail
Below is the 5th Dimensional Camera, designed by Anab Jain, Jon Ardern, Prof John Rarity, Prof Andrew Briggs & Dr Simon Benjamin
“To explore the impact this mind- blowing science could have on our sense of place and purpose in the universe, ‘The 5th Dimensional Camera’ is a fictional device that captures glimpses of parallel universes suggested by quantum physics. How might we seek to interact with these other worlds? Would we become jealous of our parallel selves? What would happen to out sense of morality if we knew that we had committed inconceivable acts in another world?”
The 5th Dimensional Camera
“Phantom Recorder” designed by Revital Cohen, Prof James Fawcett, Dr Richard Eva & Dr Stephanie P. Lacour.
“When a limb is lost, the mind often develops a phantom sensation. The phantom owner is suddenly endowed with a unique and personal appendage, invisible to others and sometimes capable of extraordinary hyperabilities. As strategies for repair ficus on practical solutions, they ten to overlook poetic functions of the body, but what if one could record and keep one’s phantom sensation, to be awoken on request?”
Detail
“Synthetic Immune System” designed by Tuur Van Balen, Prof Richard Kitney, Prof Paul Freemont & James Chappell
“Synthetic biology’s potential to make healthcare more personal and participatory cold allow us to become out own doctors and pharamcists; constantly monitering and tweaking our body. It might even allow us to externalise our immune system by outsourcing metabolic processes to external micro-organisms. Such a synthetic immune system would be tailored to one’s genetic predisposition, age, lifestyle and anxieties.”
Detail
Detail
“Happy Life” designed by James Auger, Prof Reyer Zwiggelaar, Dr Richard M. Turley & Dr Bashar Al-Rjoub.
“In the context of national security, invasive technology is accepted becaus the worst-case scenario would be infinitely worse. These technologies though often filter into everyday life where their application has a far more questionable presence. What would it mean to introduce such technology into the family home; when an electronic device can know more about your partner’s state than you do? Or can predict an incoming bout of misery through statistical analysis of accumulated data.”
Detail
Detail
“Unknown Unknowns” is a project by Onkar Kular, Prof Denis Smith & Dr Moira Fischbacher. This was a beautiful project ( my favorite from the show).
“Unknown unkowns is a multimedia reasearch library for an imaginary film. The film revolves around the worst-case scenario of a mid air collision over Wembley Stadium on FA Cup Final day. The library consists of texts for auditions, location analysis and stunt coordination, as well as computer simulation of fights, supporting photographic studies and objects. The library provides a platform to probe key themes and techniques that characterise the complex nature of crisis management and risk analysis.”
Unknown Unknowns
Detail of stadium
Detail
Recently I visited Michael Landy’s Art Bin at South London Gallery, followed in the evening by the new exhibition at Gallery S O, an installation by Hans Stofer. The two shows were both examining objects and process; Landy, very specifically in the failures of making them and Stofer capitalizing on moments of flux in making, embracing the ability of knowing when to stop with a series of still lives and installations.
In the morning at the Art Bin-I literally threw one of my Biography Vases into the giant steel frame/plexi box. It was the second to last day and by that time the bin boasted a huge pile of creative wreckage, including some notable failures from artists such as Damien Hirst and Gillian Wearing. I had the idea that if I could get my vase to perhaps shatter on top of one of the more famous failures it could be worth the material cost. NOT THE POINT and didnt happen anyway.
South London Gallery
My experience in throwing porcelain. hahaha.
Landy’s initiative for the project was to question the ownership, implications of destruction, value and preciousness. Interestingly, while so many artists dropped their work into what the artist called a “monument of creative failure” there was still image protection on the bin, not because of Mr. Landy but because every artist had not signed the release for the work to be photographed. This made it quite clear that the totality did not truly consider their work as a subject of creative failure, but rather a means of publicity- letting go is absolute release no!? So unfortunately the only pictures i could take were the exterior of the gallery (which is good for those who dont know what it looks like) and a picture that the gallery attendant took of me throwing it in.
Later I headed to Gallery S O, for the opening of a show by Hans Stofer, who is head of the GSM&J department at the RCA. The exhibition showcased collections of household objects alongside his metalwork and jewelry. In these still lives he examines both the chaotic and organizational beauty that exists within a collection. There were readymades that had been slightly altered, side by side with more conceptual metalwork and jewelry, the incorporation showed a heeded consideration to what goes on beyond a creative endeavor, acknowledging studio surroundings to be as much a piece of work as the work itself.
A wall sported glasses hung by oversized man-head nails. By the door three boxes with protective glass covers, housed collections of tableware covered in foil, and spun across the door was a wedding band held captive by a metal spiderweb. Metalwork & jewelry is a genre of the arts which like many others, is best viewed when the titular expectation is forgotten- and is one that can be appropriated to any scape, in this case of the Gallery S O, fielding itself as a whimsical studio.
Give me the Swiss passport
Malene and the Silver Cowboy
The Silver Cowboy
Band entangled in metal web
Foil-covered tableware
Detail
Skeleton on the Door of Boats
Sea Glass
Studio Cart
Marlboro Cross
Bucket Stools
Nail Heads
Detail
necklaces
Last Thursday a gaping pair of ostrich-leg boots patiently awaited a recipient at the closing reception of Christian Gonzenbach’s show at Gallery S O titled “Domestic Wildlife Collection”. It was here that a discussion started earlier in the day at the RCA continued; a discussion on his theories of whales. The Swiss artist studies histories and processes, how an animal or object achieves its identity through physicality and material composition. This is done in the language of nature and animals, with the use of skins, addressing and asking questions of the interior and exterior, of material and spiritual possessions. When does an animal become and animal, and how much needs to be removed before it attains a new purpose, perhaps a functional marketable skin? What is the molecular and spiritual composition of identity?
Gallery SO, Domestic Wildlife Collection
Inside-Out Pets
Ostrich Leg Boots
Gonzenbach was recently working on a mold of a whale, coating the inside surface with a self-formulated skin of clay and plaster, painted black. While the whale would never exist, the mold became a fossil. He stated that for him whales were imaginary, that he was from the mountains, not the ocean, and since humans no longer have a (legal) trade relationship with these creatures, we justify them in our minds based on modern mythologies instead of first-hand informed practices. When whaling was a valid business, people had to accomodate themselves to this size, creating machines and tools based on a mammoth scale, solidifying their existence.
The presumption of what makes the world we inhabit as it is, remains a human condition that he investigates and humorizes. We cant possibly experience or see the instigations of all form but we wonder. It wasn’t until after attempting to recount my experiential whales, I realized that with the exception of rather small beluga whales in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the famous, undying Shamu at Seaworld in 1993, I had never actually seen a whale in its habitat. Even on a whale watching boat off the coast of Maine, I spent hours with my parents and sisters imagining that each little white-capped wave would manifest into a fin or blowhole, to the point where it was a hallucinatory game- there were beyond doubt whales under the surface but none to be seen!
This presumption of experience is normal, and it made me assess how much of my knowledge is physically uninformed- the answer being most of it. Something as ancient as a whale is a poetic example of how severe this condition may be, and there is certainly the psychology of the oceanic unknown that renders it a beautiful example of loss. The philosophy of this thought is hundreds of books deep – my notion a miniscule particle topping an iceberg that I’ve heard is mostly submerged.
Inside-Out Donkey
Inside-Out Donkey
Gallery Detail
Stop animation of Chicken and Weasel exchanging skins
Eraser Arrowheads
Clay bear shot with gun
Meteor
Similarly to the whale mold, Gonzenbach creates his own meteors, not by sculpting a meteor but by creating the matter that would violently and gradually deteriorate a substance; Throwing rocks at clay. When I think of meteors there are massive rocks hurtling themselves towards our stratosphere, but of course I assume this is what happens, based only on the knowledge of huge blemish-like craters in the midwest and the shards of specimens in Natural History museums.
This work made me think of these two projects- which while being slightly different in conception, still represent the solidification of imaginary experience and the replication of an iconic source of greed and commerce.
Photo by Damon Winter for The New York Times
“The artist Duke Riley does some last minute work before launching his replica of a Revolutionary War-era submarine, built of plywood and fiberglass and ballasted with lead, off Pier 41 in Red Hook, Brooklyn on Friday August 3, 2007″ Quoted from the New York Times article.
Balaenoptera Musculus by Tom Sachs. Photo is copyright of Tom Sachs
“For the other installation, Balaenoptera Musculus (2006), a life-sized reconstruction of an 18-metre long blue whale, Tom Sachs took his inspiration from the whale model hanging in the ocean life hall at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. The whale, which, for its size, Sachs calls adolescent, is made in foam core, cardboard, and white polyurethane foam, a material often used or architectural models. ” Quoted from the Fondazione Prada Press Release.
This past week I took some work and travelled for the first time to Stockholm for the furniture fair. I was fortunate and thrilled to hear that Jasper Morrison was exhibiting his specimen collection of jugs, jars and pitchers, having missed it at London Design Week last September. Tucked away in the century-old, basement kitchen of art collector Wilhelmina von Hallwyls’ antique-laden residence, the show was a great relief to the peripheral week of modern scandinavian furniture.
The kitchen seemed to be the only room in the house that wasn’t surfaced in decorative collections, appropriately so for Morrison’s ideology of “super normal”, purely function-based design. The collection is a hand-picked group, plucked from thrift stores, flea markets and Morrison’s own home. Representing everyday life, which is the circumstance of pure function, the collection has a wonderful lack of pretention about its proposition of what makes vessels function as they do. The presentation is made without added context, the purpose is to simply observe typologies of jugs, jars & pitchers.
As I am studying ceramic design, I found this collection to be a pop-up text book of function. An imperative question for design is why a new form should exist to serve the same purpose as millions of existing specimens are floating around in the object stratosphere. Morrison is a designer who observes his predessesors, and offers new proposals, combining functional success and removing hindering qualities of form and material. In the end his objects are equal in their visual anonymity, adding to the progressive timeline of industrial function. This could not be done without this level of observation.
Hallwyl Museum Kitchen
Detail
Watering Can
Teapot Specimen
To see this exhibition which is essentially pure research, without the glamour and pretention of a gallery was an interesting contrast to another show in London curated by designer Konstantin Grcic, titled ”Design Real” at the Serpentine Gallery. The work of both designers is exclusively function-based, although Grcic perhaps implies more biographical form to his work than Morrison. The show at the Serpentine presents functional design as sterilized gallery work, by having plinths, white walls and minimal description; It proposes function by the standard of art, removing the observers inclination to get extremely close or touch. Morrison’s show on the other hand eliminates the gallery logic entirely, and uses a functional space to display functional objects- it could potentially be mistaken for the work of a neurotic house-keeper. The designer/curator is something that is being seen more and more as disciplines aggressively and publicly use one other in collaborations. Based on these two shows, what the designer, or maker, presents is seemingly more valuable in the aspect of proven observation, of what designers are competing with and what they deem successful.
Stove Detail
Specimens
Detail
Detail
Hallwyl Kitchen
Hallwyl Museum: Hamngatan 4, 111 47 Stockholm
The exhibition “Jugs, Jars & Pitchers” is presented by Forum magazine and Henrik Nygren Design.
Forum is the Magazine for Scandinavian Architecture, Interiors and Design. Issue no.1 for 2010 includes an excellent article based on discussion with Morrison in regards to his new show.
Last week London art directors Will Hudson and Alex Bec launched their fourth annual show titled If You Could Collaborate. The show featured 33 pairings of designers and artists at A Foundation Gallery, all who were given 12 months to produce across disciplinary borders. Collaboration seems to be one of those methods that for me, seemingly for the RCA, is divinely attractive. I am finding in my recent attempts that it is not always magical and I think I brought a little screen of skepticism with me when seeing this work, which for the most part diminished after considering the different approaches. Certain pieces in here seem holistic in concept, material usage, and aesthetic; Others are perfect specimens of two ideas, two ways of working that form visible hybrids of styles. Having seen the gamut of approaches I found some that were logical, expected, and others that had less refined outcomes. Either way- it seemed like the point, whichever side of the fence they landed on. This show had no shortage of conceptual depth or eye candy- definitely looking forward to next years!
There is an excellent catalog available here. Below are some images and links to both sides of the collaborations. Project descriptions where quoted are taken from the If You Could website:
“Praline have been creating brilliant design solutions for many years, from publications and branding, to websites and exhibitions. Always looking to add humour and clarity to their work, they’re not put off by the size of a project, working with both large organisations and smaller outfits, including esteemed clients such as the Pompidou Centre and Tate Modern. After meeting The Model Shop of architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, through a previous commission they decided they’d like to extend their working relationship a little further. Ending up with a new font, and physical scale models interpreting its shapes.”
Praline and The Model Shop
Detail
Ian Wright and Riitta Ikonen
Detail of Helmet
Ian Wright and Riitta Ikonen
I first saw some of Max Lamb’s work at the Johnson Trading Gallery in NYC. It happened to be a week before I was moving to London to attend the RCA and ended up finding an adjunct show in Hoxton with more of his work. I felt the piece that Gemma and Max created was an alternative interpretation to the collaborative theme. More so, it considered the circumstance of the show and took the idea of collaboration as a way of doing something site specific rather than an amalgamation of professions. Besides- herringbone is the new houndstooth.
Max Lamb and Gemma Holt
Craig Ward + Sean Freeman + Alison Carmichael
Craig Ward, Sean Freeman & Alison Carmichael
“A well-loved member of the fashion industry, Fred is a truly influential creative force. Known for making beautiful props and accessories, there’s no more solid proof of her class than knowing she’s worked on commissions for the likes of Vogue, i-D, Dazed & Confused, MTV and Selfridges as well as her own personal collections. With design studio No Days Off, she is launching the Eight Days A Week campaign, petitioning for a little bit extra time….”
Fred Butler & No Days Off
“Karl Grandin is a creative who is difficult to shoehorn. You may find him working as one half of design team Vår, as co-founder of fashion label Cheap Monday, or as a successful freelance illustrator. What you won’t find is him producing a bad piece of work. A varied portfolio, which is infused with a swagger of someone with an inherent desire to create.
By collecting familiar elements from flags, detaching them from their sources and putting them back together in new combinations, he and Dutch fashion designers And Beyond have created a new world in the form of an oversized flag.”
Karl Brandin & And Beyond
Marion Deuchars + Margaret Calvert
Marion Deuchars & Margaret Calvert
“There are a thousand words we could use to describe Rob Ryan’s work, and all of them are superlatives. Hyperbole is something we usually try and steer away from when describing artwork, but it’s tough to do Rob’s work enough justice without it. A combination of heartfelt sentiments, both beautifully depicted and exquisitely cut, confirm you’re in the hands of a true great when presented with a Rob Ryan piece.
Given a canvas to execute his work by Michael Marriott in the form of a flatpack rocking chair, the duo have produced a piece of furniture I’m sure lots of people will want to get their hands on.”
Rob Ryan and Michael Marriot
Job Wouters & Roel Wouters
This was one of my favorite pieces in the show. The team created currencies based on production and material cost. I love the idea of objects being tactilely/physically representative of their value and not just conceptually so.
BCMH + Smith & Wightman
Before the end of the year I visited the Turner Prize show at Tate Britain. One of the short-list artists, that fell to the golden Richard Wright, was Roger Hiorns who was nominated for his amazing off-site installation called Seizure. There was no photography allowed at the Tate but I was able to get some shots of ”Seizure” which was installed in an abandoned 1970’s council building at Elephant & Castle.
While waiting on this line I had vague notions of what was inside the building, which is that Mr. Hiorns crystallized the space with copper sulphate. Additionally I was given these instructions, and an interview which I am including excerpts from below.
“Take great care when entering and leaving. There is a step. Walk slowly and carefully throughout. The floor is very uneven. Mind your head. Surfaces are sharp, and many crystals hang down. You may touch the walls but please dont break or damage the crystals. Do not attempt to climb or sit on the surfaces.”
Installation Site
Standing outside the viewer is presented with the emotional aspects of this abandoned building. There is the expectation that it’s desolate, empty, and has been an eventual failure as a structure, socially and constructively. It is now a by-product that is unquestionably uninhabitable and has yet to be worth the cost of demolishing.
Upon entering the stark low-rise, I stepped into a coveted jewel box, a crystal-encrusted flat, something that appealed to my childhood anticipations of discovering hidden spaces. I haven’t seen copper sulphate used as a material since I was in science class trying to grow rock gardens (oh yeah- and Tokujin Yoshioka’s Venus Chair- interesting to look at alongside Hiorns), but nothing remotely challenges the scale which Hiorns presented here. It was psychologically and visually heavy. The manner that it addresses the architecture is that of a secretive moss, or heavy dust covering, but in an apocalyptic, violent sense, almost to the degree that volcanic lava might cover a landscape and leave vague reminders of a historical form. This covering was actually still growing, while the building adversely was in a state of decay.
Detail
Bath coated in Copper Sulphate Crystals
James Lingwood, Co-Director of Artangel, conducted an interview with Roger Hiorns for the text titled The Impregnation of an Object, July 2008:
JL: What led you to the kind of architecture which would host the project? The space we found is quite specific and there is the idea of working in a small part of a larger whole, where the living spaces were replicated, all the same size with all the same configurations.”
RH: I have a deep interest in Brutalist architecture and the best example of that is the Robin Hood Estate designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in Poplar in East London. That was the place I was initially thinking about.
JL: What is it about the Robin Hood Estate?
RH: It was the first of its kind in London and one of the most extreme. These buildings were about containing large groups of people who were all living in the same kinds of places and being encouraged to think the same kinds of thoughts. There was the idea of a collective, the dream of growing together for the greater good, and I suppose I have always been very distrustful of the collective, it’s like my attitude to religion. These kinds of buildings don’t work, as a model they have not passed the test of time.”
“JL: These kinds of buildings began to deteriorate quite quickly. By the 1970’s they were already in bad shape.”
RH: They’re still somehow rather beautiful, they seem to carry the stain of life, to take in everything they were experiencing. I am always interested in this material called experience and what that would be. The grinding of an engine is an experience. The collective nature of the place is a kind of experience, an amalgam of memories.”
Details of Main Space(L) and Entry(R)
Ceiling Detail
Detail
“RH: I am completely objective about my own artwork, I can stand outside of it and work out whether it should exist or not. That’s why I use materials which enable me to be detached, materials which are their own thing, have their own genetic structure. Rather like copper sulphate is as auto-genetic, my work is also auto-genetic, it tries to make some sense of my psychological position and then basically makes itself.
JL: What about the blueness of the crystals-was that something else that attracted you to the material?
RH: The color was always a sidetrack for me, it was never about the beauty, about claiming something to be a beautiful object after it had undergone the crystalizing process. That would just be banal, though banality is not a bad thing always.”
Seizure was commissioned by Artangel and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, in association with Channel 4 and also by the National Lottery through the Arts Council England.
The other week I saw the Stuart Haygarth show titled “Found” at Haunch of Venison. Having only seen one of his chandelier pieces at the re-opening of New Museum in NYC a few years ago, it was great to see his newer furniture projects alongside a collection of his lighting. The furniture is successful by his process, re-purposing meticulously curated collections of found objects, but there is a quality to his lighting that literally and conceptually elevates objects beyond their industrial disposition. The lack of this relationship in the furniture is perhaps because we are already adept to accessing and using objects at these proximities, in these positions. Objects, functional or not, are experienced by being picked up, turned, thrown away, packed, stored, displayed… Adversely, the chandeliers force us to look up through the lenses and eyeglass frames used in the collection, effectively displacing the viewer and the objects an equidistance from their utilitarian relationship, revealing new emotional typologies.
Cabinet Detail
The lens-frame chandeliers, called urchin lights, are so evocative in their possession of historical reference, I felt they were the most successful pieces in the show. Displayed in the only darkened room in the gallery, they loom over the viewer in an unmatched cluster of three, initially ocean-like in their presence. Once under them, they attain more robotic and skeletal qualities. Seeing so many tiny clavicle-like frames is instantly reminiscent of described holocaust remains, personal objects that were indefinitely part of daily life, an enabler, a dis-abler, a by-product. In grouping such an immensity of frames, the objects are considered on levels of dispossession, the sinister suggestion of an object’s ability to persevere beyond the life of its owner. This possibly is an objects greater life, from the time of abandonment to reincarnation.
Urchin Light
Urchin light detail
Urchin light detail
Lens Chandelier
Lens Chandelier Detail
Conical Lens Chandelier
Detail from center
Other favorites were the table lamps whose bases were adorned with the obsessive cat and dog collections often thrown to the second-hand shop.
Ceramic Figurine Lamps
Cat Detail
Bottle Cap Floor Lamps
The Stuart Haygarth show “Found”, will be up at Haunch of Venison, 6 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3ET, through 30 January.
http://www.haunchofvenison.com
For the first term project at the Royal College of Art we were asked to choose an object from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new ceramic gallery, create a replica and produce an interpretation. Nearly a week after considering hundreds of objects, which are displayed in a stunning strand of spaces on the third floor, I finally landed on a French porcelain cosmetics jar, originating from a factory in Mennecy, outside of Paris in pre-revolutionary 17th century France. My initial attraction was due to its hundreds of seemingly identical flowers coating the surface. Any object oriented between the typologies of industrial production and delicate craftsmanship usually catches my eye, and this piece in particular, despite my feeling that it was too simple of an object ( which I now retract entirely), became my focus for the past 8 weeks.
Cosmetics Jar, Mennecy, France, 1755. Soft paste porcelain with hand-pressed decoration. Approx 16 cm x 13cm(left) Mennecy II, London, 2009. Slipcast porcelain, casting wax, graphite, plaster. Approx 28cm x 18cm (right)
Aside from the technical challenges I was particularly interested in the life of such an object and its user. This jar would have been part of a set, living on an impressive vanity where the ritual of beautification would occur. Both the 17th century french royalty and the bourgeois court were heavy subscribers to the cosmetics industry. Ointments and powders were used to make the skin appear more fair and white, which was a visual proclamation of the luxury of service, situated well beyond a sun-cast, agrarian means of living. Despite the privilege, cosmetics at the time used arsenic as an ingredient, which lead to skin disfigurements and fatalities.
I love that an object can possess such a dichotomy, sourcing beauty and disfigurement, and inherently also be a decorative particle of another surface. When developing an interpretation, my focus was derived from the temporal quality of cosmetics as a surface device, and how it might integrate an object abstractly with a person and their environment.
The form itself became an exaggeration of the original Mennecy jar, but now coated in a series of residual materials that will fade and deteriorate on the vase, while making marks on the person and their habitat. Consequently the object will become a record of its use, questionably more unsightly or constantly cleaner, more deteriorated or progressively beautiful with age.
Here is a visual time line of the project showing varying stages of the process.
First attempts at throwing porcelain
The original jar and lid would have first been thrown in a soft-paste porcelain on a wheel, then turned by hand to create the decorative marks and shape. The flowers are hand made and immediately applied. For my attempt I experimented with different templates to accommodate the form of the original, and also created a plaster tool to aid in the production of the flowers.
Base form with and without floral application
Original Mennecy Jar ( left) and replica ( right)
Details of the replica object
One of my earlier reactions to the form and use of decoration was to invert the expectation of flourish by creating the texture/subject/interest on the inside of the vessel. While I was also contemplating the final direction of my interpretation, I made a test study for this concept ( which was also used as a glaze test). I will definitely be developing this concept further for another project called secret fauna@ secretfauna.com
Inverted Mennecy with hand applied flowers and horses. Hard-paste porcelain. Approx 13cm x 9 cm
Detail
Detail
Below are some sketches that were made from the original thrown forms which began to dictate the forms of the final interpretation. These were thrown spontaneously and after living with them in my studio I began to see them as small sketches of how I might go forward.
Thrown sketches
This led to more refined forms turned in plaster for casting.
3 form developments in plaster
Porcelain Casts
Porcelain casts and color sampling
Porcelain casts
When considering materials to coat the surface of the vases, I experimented with colors and textures that I felt had a notion of cosmetics and that historically related to objects and object-making. One of my first thoughts was to use red wax because it reminded me of the body, blood & femininity. It also works as a nod to lipstick & rouges. I was very attracted to the residual quality of wax, in that despite the color, if you are to touch it, you end up repelling other kinds of matter, rather than obtaining a visual mark. Contrary to that I also started testing graphite mixed with binders, which makes it a bit harder and slightly less transferable, reminiscent of an eyeshadow or pencil. Finally I tested plaster with different gradients of tint, to reference a finely pressed powder.
Porcelain sample dipped in wax
Tinted plaster swatches and porcelain samples dipped in plaster
Porcelain samples dipped in varying consistencies of liquid graphite
Final prototypes:
Slip cast porcelain with wax, plaster and graphite coatings
Graphite and plaster transfer
habitats
Detail
Here is an article about the renovations of the new V&A ceramic galleries:
http://www.septemberindustry.co.uk/?p=2985
The Anish Kapoor exhibit:
David Chipperfield
Form Matters
&
Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams
Here are a few images from two exhibitions currently on view at the Design Museum – British architect David Chipperfield’s Form Matters and Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams. Both Chipperfield and Rams are very serious in their approach to design, and both are incredibly formally oriented. I got the sense that this was an intentional scheduling decision on behalf of the museum, and found it interesting to consider and experience both shows sequentially.
Form Matters Entrance
The Chipperfield show seems to be a more carefully considered show, the space seemed more complex and the flow of the show seems a little more natural. I imagine the second floor gallery easier to program, than the split-up third floor galleries. The show featured video, images, drawings, and most importantly models – almost none of which are depicted here, for whatever reason I only took images of the wall graphics (the strongest part of the visual identity of the show).
Project/Wall Graphic Detail
Project/Wall Graphic Detail
Project/Wall graphic detail
Less and More felt a lot looser in program. The products were placed in rows on long rectangular pedestals or tables, a few inset in vitrines etc. but I am not sure this was really the best method of display for the work. It did allow for a full view of the prducts in most cases, but the result seemed similar to a sidewalk sale or antique furniture shop. Another side affect of the long tables was the simplicity of movement through the space, the tables acted as long galleys that felt restrictive or too committal. I really enjoyed seeing so much of Dieter Rams’ work, but I felt the show lacked coherency or even a very clear message.
Two interesting moments occur in the show – my favorite was a sort of faux living room filled with Rams’ furniture and products. This was actually the most conventional area of the exhibition design – but it had a nice cumulative effect to be able to see all his pieces next to each other. Finally, there was a case at the very end of the exhibition, with a few pieces from the museums collection that were made by designers (Ives, Morrison, Fukasawa) of later generations whom were “influenced” by Rams’ work. I found this moment weak, and such a missed opportunity. This is precisely the argument the show wanted to make, but perhaps the process of clearing the rights and exploring the idea of inherited language and influence loomed too large a problem to address. Rams’ work of course clean, beautiful and rigorous – either way it was worth seeing first hand.
Main Room
Panels
Braun Radio
Turntable
Tabletop Design in case with text label
Dieter Rams life