I didn’t buy these earphones because of their sustainable packaging (though every little helps I guess) but I was quite impressed when they did arrive. It’s so unusual to be able to buy anything that doesn’t use any plastic at all in its packaging and still looks good and does the job of protecting and presenting the product well. I guess that it’ll take a bit more time for other companies to adopt similar practices but well done to Sennheiser on this effort, corrugated cardboard can be cool.
Claudia Djabbari - Object and Despair, Globe, 2009
As good an exhibition of contemporary art as you could hope to find in a department store, the Museum of Small Things is a treasure trove of curiosities providing welcome respite from the bustling aisles of Selfridges. Curated by Nicola Schwartz of creative agency Pocko and designer Kit Grover, the show includes contributions from international artists including Grayson Perry, Richard Wentworth and James Braithwaite. The aim is to celebrate the beauty of the small through artworks in a variety of media that demand closer inspection demonstrating that when it comes to great ideas size really doesn’t matter.
This new retrospective at the Barbican Centre brings together all of Arad’s most recognizable furniture and product designs plus a large number of seldom seen and new pieces. Together with examples of architectural and lighting projects they make up the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to a living product designer that I’ve seen.
Those familiar with his career so far will not be surprised to hear that the show is dominated by furniture. Dozens of chairs in myriad shapes and materials tell the story of an adventurous graduate exploring possible ways to create new forms using found objects, raw concrete and welded steel, gradually building a reputation, working on grander, more complex designs and eventually becoming a master of his craft dealing with commissions ranging from buildings to crystal chandeliers.
An explosion of colour and noise signalled the arrival of Chinese New Year in Soho. The colour was provided by the countless strings of lanterns criss-crossing the streets, the children waving paper dragons and myriad stalls and shops filled with toys, sweets and more lanterns. The noise of drums and cymbals indicated the presence of one of a number of large lions that were making their way through the streets stopping at each door to “eat” a lettuce that had been left hanging for them, scattering the leaves around as a symbol of a fresh start and the spreading of good luck. The main parade and celebrations take place next Sunday (21st) including a ceremony in Trafalgar Square and fireworks in Leicester Square.
I realise I’m a bit late on this one as it’s been in place since 13th October last year but this is my first visit to Tate Modern in a while so here are my thoughts anyway.
The monumental scale and raw construction are the first things you notice as you walk the length of How It Is to reach the entrance at the far end of the Turbine Hall. From there a shallow ramp leads up to a wall of darkness from which people emerge suddenly and noiselessly.
After reviewing Julia Lohmann’s latest work for Gallery Libby Sellers (see previous post) I thought I’d examine the recent prevalence of morbid symbology and references to death in design in a bit more detail. Lohmann herself is certainly one of the key protagonists in this trend having based the majority of her previous work on giving a new lease of life to animal carcasses that would normally become waste. Two such pieces featured in the recent exhibition Telling Tales: Fantasy and Fear in Contemporary Design at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in which curator Gareth Williams dedicated an entire section to the theme of death entitled Heaven and Hell. The show featured disturbingly direct evocations of human vulnerability (the flesh-like Rubber Table and a rug resembling pools of blood called The Lovers by Fredrikson Stallard) as well as references to the terror of natural or man-made disasters and acts of human brutality and war. As well as Lohmann’s work there were a number of other designers who made use of taxidermy to create provocative objects with a dark sense of humour including Kelly McCallum, Niels van Eijk and Wieki Somers.
The opening reception of Gallery Libby Sellers’ latest guerilla exhibition at Gallery Jacqueline Rabun attracted a stellar crowd including Alice Rawsthorn, Tord Boontje, Gareth Williams, Jaime Hayon and Alexander Payne. Sellers presents a new project by Julia Lohmann and Gero Grundmann which builds on Lohmann’s previous explorations into our primeval relationship with animals as a source of food and the use of their remains to create new objects.
The inevitable result of our sudden dive into recession and the endless talk of cuts, deficit and depression is the call for designers to stop fooling around and get back to the business of helping people live more efficient lives by creating purely functional products that do just what you expect them to do, preferably using as few materials as possible for the lowest possible price. No frivolity, no fancy functions and no fun. This is the antithesis of the expressive and expansive attitude that dominated design and architecture in the noughties where newness was a necessity – whether it was adding more functions to electronics than anyone could possibly know what to do with or generating new forms and adding superfluous decoration just because we could.
