Clean Up That Message

It was really something else to see the difference the economy made on the ICFF this year. It really was a kindler, gentler trade show than in years past. It's especially amusing in light of the booth representative critiques I wrote last year. There was practically no attitude at all this year, everyone was remarkably nice and helpful. There were still the low-key approaches of allowing me to freely browse without interference, but quite a few reps were nearly stumbling all over one another to attend to my needs and talk up their product. 

I was also shocked to discover how much smaller it was. The whole southwestern corner of the main exhibition space was virtually empty of exhibitors. The auxiliary exhibition space to the south, hall 1D, was very sparsely devoted to designs from Japan occupying only the very center of the large room in a little cluster and a small bit of its perimeter. It made ICFF 2009 much more easy to manage without Design Overload, but it was a bit hard to take in much the same way as my reactions to the downscaling of BKLYN DESIGNS. Hall 1D is normally stuffed full of smaller booths for up-and-comers and craft artisans. Those smaller designers and companies are often my favorites, the ones doing far more interesting work than the big multi-million-dollar corporations, and much more deserving of mention here. Clearly, they just couldn't afford it this year.

Nonetheless, I'm happy. I'm happy because I truly believe that it's starting to happen. It seems like lately, everyone I talk to has something Green on their lips. Not only that, but they talk about it with an air of pride and accomplishment and--dare I say, one of the few cases I feel its justified--a slight tone of self-righteousness. Perhaps I'm kidding myself, and it's only because I live in a city like New York where we're maybe more surrounded, confronted by progressive thought than in some other parts of the world, but I'm hopeful that's not the case. I think we really are, collectively, embracing this direction for our future. I think we're realizing this is the way it has to be, and not only that, but also that we're starting to really enjoy the possibilities and the satisfaction of doing it. Truly, it feels better.

So on that note, I'd like to start my posts from the ICFF with a designer from Spain who I've written about in the magazine, whose work has always impressed me, and who presented one of the most extraordinary pieces at the whole show this year: Nani Marquina. Coincidentally, the Cooper-Hewitt included one of her pieces in their Felt show, which I was excited to see.

This rug was right out in front of her generously-sized booth, "Global Warming":

Click that.

It's beautiful, poignant, disturbing, and most of all, a responsible statement about where we stand. Anyone who's watched a nature show any time recently recognizes what this is, and many of us can't help but be filled with a sense of anger and sadness about the fate handed to these poor creatures by human recklessness.

I have the utmost admiration for Marquina for doing this, and I'm so glad to have seen it.

She's also unveiled a new line with less baggage attached to it, but also very cool. This is her "Folk" line:

It's easy to see it here in smaller images, but it's interesting that in a full size rug, seeing it fairly close up, it wasn't immediately obvious that this is a traditional folk rug pattern blown up to huge proportions. I sort of did a double-take and was like, "oh, wow!" It's sort of Pop in its own way, but such a great idea. It makes these patterns, which recreated regular size would be something from a tacky bargain housewares catalogue, into an amazing graphic element. The folk quality of it isn't lost in the translation to something far more cool, however, and these still have that kind of warmth and comfort of something familiar. Unlike a lot of things I talk about here that I love and think are ridiculously awesome, this is something I would totally put on my own living room floor.

©2009, Ryan Witte

Two Heads Are Better Than One

The talk with Peter Eisenman and Greg Lynn at the 92nd Street Y two Thursdays ago was really fascinating.  I'm so glad I found out about it and could attend.  These are easily two of the greatest minds in the world of Architectural Theory, and here they were, both on the same stage.

--Photos courtesy Essential Architecture and  Vitra.

What just occurs to me now is what a strange time we live in.  Strange because I only just now, some days later, registered the fact that there was a metal detector and a bag check to get into the building.  I didn't even notice it at the time.  Strange to live in a time where our metal belongings must be checked for safety in the most unlikely places and we barely even notice doing it anymore.

The two came out, but first Kurt Forster, the moderator, introduced the three of them and gave a bit of a speech, explaining what contributions Eisenman and Lynn had made over the years.  He also explained that all three of them have been visiting professors at Yale, and that Lynn worked for Eisenman for a while.

Eisenman was set to go first, but the first slide presentation to come up happened to be Lynn's.  Eisenman said there was no reason in particular that he needed to go first, and tossed the controller to Lynn.

Lynn talked about quite a few of the things in his new book, Form, which had just been released.  Mostly it was his interest in "primaries," uniform design modules out of which distinct and unique designs can grow or be assembled.  I thought the best example really was his flatware for Alessi.  

--Image courtesy Archipel.

Alessi told him to design the spoon, and that they'd just extrapolate all the other pieces from there.  That's how they always do it.  But Lynn wasn't quite satisfied with that, so instead he created a "primary," which isn't spoon, knife, or fork.  It's simply a design direction for the flatware line, from which can grow an infinite number of different spoons, knives, and forks of any size and for any use.

Another thing Alessi told him--complained about--is that whenever they have architects design a teapot, they never want to put handles on it, so the user is always at risk of burning his or her hands.  

Lynn didn't either, but he made his pieces out of double-walled titanium, so they wouldn't be hot to the touch.  In other words, he made the entire piece a handle.

The other thing I think was so well illuminated by this discussion is that Lynn's work is not Organic, at all; it's fully Biological.  The form his work takes is derived from the very process of growth by which it comes into existence.  What's more, it's embedded fully into the digital "soil" of the latest computer technology.  He doesn't just envision something sculptural and use the computer to model it because it's too geometrically complicated.  Rather, the very nature of his work is codependent with its digital origins.  Eisenman later made the analogy with the composition of music as opposed to its performance.  Music can be performed on electronic instruments or not, Composition is the real art.  Here's Lynn's entry for the Biennale Park Pavilion No. 3:

--Image courtesy UC Berkeley.

There are plenty more brilliant and mind-blowing things to say about Greg Lynn, but I haven't had a chance to read the book, yet.  I'll come back to him when I have.

Then Eisenman took over.  Quite surprisingly, as brilliant as the man is, and the thousands of times he's no doubt lectured to all sorts of different audiences, he seemed to not have his thoughts together all that well.  What was even more surprising, though, is that after several times he paused a sentence to say "uuuuummmmmmm," someone behind me in the audience would mock him.  I suppose it could have been an echo in the room, but I seriously don't think so.  So Eisenman would say "uuummm," and from behind me I'd hear "uuummm."

The only possibly acceptable excuses I could come up with for this is that it was a very, very, very close friend of Eisenman's whose nasty sense of humor he loves, or someone to whom he'd said "if I accidentally start to do that, please call my attention to it."  Something tells me it was neither.  The "ums" were a bit distracting, but I just cannot believe the utterly appalling nerve it would require to so blatantly disrespect someone like Peter Eisenman.  After a while, I was paying more attention to this going on than I was to what he was saying, and I resent that.  I don't care what you think of his theories, how much you might disagree with them, or even if you think he's a phony or a hack.  I don't happen to think he is, but that's beside the point.  That kind of behavior is just absolutely unacceptable.  To whoever that was, I would like to say please don't ever show your despicable face at any architectural event where I am.  As nauseatingly pacifist as I may be, I might have a hard time not kicking the person in the neck.

At any rate, Eisenman spent the majority of the time discussing his ongoing project, the City of Culture of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, which absolutely deserved the full duration of his presentation.

He explained how the form of it is derived from a simple grid at various scales, contoured and distorted by the paths of pilgrimage through the site and the topology of the site.  He then borrowed stylistic cues from the surrounding town itself, a vaguely historical maneuver that surprised me a bit.  It's much further along than this now, in fact, many of the six building's shells, at least, are in place, but you can see the site being prepped here:

--Image courtesy Columbia.

Here are a few models:

--Columbia.

--Images courtesy pushpullbar.

According to ArcSpace, the six buildings are conceived in three pairs: the Museum of Galician History and the New Technologies Center, the Music Theater (which he referred to as an "opera house") and Central Services Building, and the Galician Library and Periodicals Library.  The Hemeroteca (Periodicals) was the building I'd say he showed most, likely because it's the most completed of the group.  This facade is actually based on nearby Galician buildings that have windows jutting peculiarly out of them to manage sunlight:

Renderings of the Hemeroteca:

--Renderings courtesy Fundación Cidade da Cultura.

Here's the museum:

New Technologies:

And the theater:

It's slated for completion in 2012.  Truly, my hat goes off to the country of Spain for choosing such a daring and extraordinary design for a project so enormous and so deeply important to so many people.  It's the kind of project that in the U.S., unfortunately, would likely lead to the choice of something terribly conservative, safe, and ultimately mediocre--a state of affairs I hope we can change.

They finished off by sort of talking back and forth amongst the three of them, posing questions to one another and elaborating on what'd already been said, then taking questions from the audience.  It was a wholly inspiring presentation.

After the talk was over there was the book signing.  I knew there would be a long line, so I stepped outside for a moment.  When I returned and got on line, I made it right up to the front of the two men at their two desks.  I was asked with which of them I was interested in speaking.  What a question!  I should've said "both," but I didn't want to be greedy.  I said "Mr. Lynn."  To Lynn I had something very quick and easy I wanted to say that would satisfy for such a quick meeting.  With Eisenman, I have entire long, complicated conversations that would need to be had, near impossible to abridge.

Lynn evidently suspected that everyone wanted only to talk to Eisenman, and I suppose didn't want to be sitting there twiddling his thumbs, so before I even reached the front of the line, he'd already gotten up and left.  Finally the man in charge of the line said he didn't think Lynn was coming back.  So I went to talk to him out in the lobby area, where he was signing a few more copies of his book.

He was done.  I thought I might even be able to have a better conversation with him there, more casual, but it just never happened.  I told him how upset I was that his book was sitting at home on my desk, since I hadn't known there'd be a book-signing.  He said "how did you get a copy?"  I said "review copy...why, has it not been released yet?"  Evidently it'd only officially gone on sale in some parts of Europe.  I told him Rizzoli really did do a beautiful job with it, and he should tell them that.  He said "you can tell them yourself, they're right there."  There were a couple of representatives from Rizzoli standing right on the other side of me.  I told them "it's a beautiful publication."  That wasn't butt-kissing; it really is a very high-quality design and binding.

I told him his ideas had been so very influential to my thinking and thanked him for that.  I said I lived about three blocks from his Presbyterian Church, which had been mentioned early on in the talk.  He said "really? Where do you live?" and I told him.  It was around then I noticed how extremely TALL he is.  The guy has to be about 6'6" if he's an inch.  He said it's a great neighborhood and I agreed, and then he got distracted talking to someone else.  At that point, I realized, disappointingly, that he probably just wanted to get out of there already and go home.  I said thank you again and shook his hand.

Regardless, probably it will be more conducive if I bump into him at a cocktail party or something, than the trail end of a whirlwind talk and book-signing.  I can only hope.  Very, very likely, there will be more 92Y events to come worthy of discussion here.  Stay tuned.

©2008, Ryan Witte

The Bittersweet End

To finish up my coverage of the ICFF, I'd like to combine a few smaller companies together, each of which had a couple of very cool items.  In the interests of being impartial, I'll go in alphabetical order.

So first up is Gaia & Gino, from Istanbul.  They do a lot of extremely wonderful housewares and art and design objects, so I highly recommend a trip around their website, which they just recently redesigned and relaunched.  I'd discussed them elsewhere before, however, so the new items I really liked were their "Mistic" candelabra/ vase, which is beautifully laboratorial in clear glass, but completely different in this new gold:

The metal is applied very lightly, so from certain angles, it gives off this mysterious, smokey bluish hue.  It makes it a timelessly fascinating and lovely piece, in my opinion.

G&G also have a line called Gino The Dog, which is all this amazing stuff for our pets.  New this year was their "Loop" doggie bed:

For kitties too, I suppose.  It also comes in silver, which is fairly glitzy.  But it can be unsnapped, unfolded, and laid flat for storage or transport.

Gaia & Gino

(Turkey) 90-212-234-4472

office@gaiagino.com

Next we have Denmark's Hay, which I actually discovered via their distributor, MOD Objects, who were running the booth (MOD's website is kind of cool, by the way, because the color theme of the homepage images is different each time you go to it).  MOD is mostly doing contract furniture, and Hay's pieces, like most of MOD's offerings, are seriously hypermodern, but there were a couple of striking pieces that I quite liked.  This is their "Mormor" sofa:

I think it's that the vibe is vaguely the interior of a 1970s muscle-car--very groovy--but the combination of the lines, colors, and volumes end up being very 21st Century, somehow.

And one of a number of differently-named lines that all appear to develop a similar idea (and would actually look quite graphically interesting together): "One," "Round One," and this, perhaps the latest in the evolution, "Other One":

There's an ottoman for this, and they can be lined up as a sectional, as well, in different complementary colors and so on.  It's a little bit on the sharp side for me, but I think it's still stunning and I love that deep blue.  It's one of the very vivid primaries that doesn't shock my system.

Hay

(Denmark) 459-942-3870

hay@hay.dk

Obviously, a company as huge and established as Kohler doesn't really need my press, but nevertheless I was pretty inspired by their new Karbon faucet:

You should go play around with the animated webpage and watch the videos, they're pretty cool and very well-done.  But while a little bit more industrial than some of their fancier, more voluptuous hardware, it's just about the most flexible, functional, adaptable, useful kitchen faucet imaginable, and for someone who really loves to cook and entertain, I'd think indispensable, as well.

Kohler

800-456-4537

Norway's Mokasser appears to be a young company also doing some very sleek pieces.  Boy, those northern countries sure do know how to do some Modernism, huh?  This is their "Eshu" line.  There's an armchair, ottoman, and loveseat, but I thought the sofa, "250," showed the elegance of its lines best:

Not unexpectedly, I'm having color issues again.  But they show this also in a pale, soft beige which is just exquisite.

Here's their "Whole in One" chair:

Ow, my retinal cones!  I sat in this one for a couple moments toward the end of my exhausting time at the show, and it's totally cradling and comfortable and offered the relaxation I needed.  A sharp square profile with a hyperbola carved out of it, the whole thing canted slightly: very simple, pure geometric relationships, but the entire thing comes together perfectly.

Mokasser

(Norway) 472-260-1944

office@mokasser.com

Doing some remarkably clever work is another very young company from Cincinatti called Refined Sugar Studio, headed by sculptor Matt Kotlarczyk.  First are these small tables called "Albee Remains" tables:

The light fixtures were rescued from Cincinatti's Albee Theater, when it was being demolished in 1977.

--Photo origin unknown.  The arch was moved to Cincinatti's Convention Center, and a flyer from '77 seems to indicate everything in the entire theater was put up for sale.

Kotlarczyk repaired and restored them and enclosed them in a protective acrylic casing to preserve them for all eternity.  The bulbs are very similar to the Edison ones originally used in 1927.  There's even silent exhaust fans in the base to keep the table top from getting too hot.  I think this is so smart.  It talks about our historical, interior architectural legacy, issues of preservation and destruction, display, presentation, and the artistry of old-school ornamentation, the nature of recycling and reclamation, and at the end of it all, it's just an aesthetically beautiful piece.  These are in a limited edition, not surprisingly.  Being remnants of a grand old theater, and giving off such a soft ambient glow, I think these would be delightful in an entertainment room or home theater.

I think his "Eat Me" table was one of the cleverest things at the show:

The glass tabletop sits on 1800 tiny light bulbs.  At each of the six place-settings, a sequencer keeps changing the lights to read in red a number of different words made up of the letters in the word "MEAT" and all having to do with eating.  

The words rotate on a time-delay, or can be hooked up to a microphone to respond to the sounds of your dinner guests.  I got the impression other text could easily be entered in, as well.  This one has silent exhaust fans, as well, to prevent it from getting too hot.  Certainly this would require just the right--even Punk Rock--interior, but the only problem with this one would be getting your dinner party guests to eventually talk about something other than how incredibly awesome and fun your table is.  The table is a sensory experience before the meal even begins.

Refined Sugar Studio

513-235-8526

Finally, this is a piece from Stua in Spain.  They're being distributed in the U.S. by Design Within Reach, which is another outfit that doesn't really need my press.  But I thought this deserved mentioning for a couple reasons.  I spoke to the guy at the booth, who said he was the designer--although the chair is credited to Josep Mora, who doesn't look familiar to me.  Anyway, the guy I spoke with was extremely nice and cordial.  I grabbed the opportunity to ask him the question I've mentioned before: "'Within Reach' of whom?" since their prices aren't all that low.  He explained that it's not about price at all, but rather that a lot of this work by smaller European design houses is very difficult to get in the U.S. so DWR makes this stuff more accessible to the North American market.  Oooooohhhhhhh!

Also, the chair is a really great piece of design work.  It's called "Egoa" and "Egoa on Castors":

The wood is somewhat warm here, but it looks somewhat unfriendly to a butt.  I sat in one to speak with the rep, though, and I was really impressed.  The contours of it, and also the fact that it flexes under your weight when you lean back, make it remarkably comfortable.  The hardware, itself, is very sleek and tight, as well:

They also have an upholstered version, which I'm sure would be more practical at a desk over the long term:

Myself, from purely an aesthetic standpoint, I thought the wood was more elegant and dynamic.

Stua

stua@stua.com

There were a few additional companies with designs that were mildly interesting, but who couldn't be bothered to respond to a simple email, even after several attempts on my part.  I suspect they'd be just as unhelpful with potential customers, so I'm not going to waste my time or yours discussing them.

I have one more post from the ICFF on the way that I'm extremely excited about.  Otherwise, that wraps up my coverage for 2008!  Hope you enjoyed it, I know I certainly have.

©2008, Ryan Witte

Smokin' Pottery

Looking around the website for Spain's Lladró, I was a bit conflicted.  Their porcelain work is undoubtedly of the finest quality, in fact, one of their largest limited edition pieces goes for $140,000.  And while some of their latest figurines have a very interestingly candid, almost Norman Rockwellian character that keeps them just barely this side of grandmotherly, I wonder if they don't sometimes get a little too close.

Nonetheless, the lines they were showing at the ICFF were fairly startling--in a good way.  They've asked designers to take works from their back catalogue and reinterpret them in new, conceptual ways in a line called Re-Cyclos.  With this and some other work, they've ended up with art objects that at first glance look very traditional, but upon closer inspection, are expressive, modern, and very unique.

This "Love" series of figurines was really what sold me, and I'm glad the rep (who was very nice, helpful, and enthusiastic--in my ongoing critiques of that) explained to me what it was (click for larger):

They're older pieces, but reinterpreted with tiny porcelain flowers representing the different stages of a love affair.  I don't remember the exact terms she used, but essentially, "I" is infatuation, "II" is falling in love, and "III" is two become one, getting comfortable.

They do figurines of different breeds of dogs that are quite nice--if you know a serious dog lover, check them out.  But this Re-Cyclos piece takes one of those and uses it to create a negative impression.  There are some of these with male and female faces, as well:

Next up is a line called Naturofantastic, which is inspired by organic motifs, much of it underwater, but sort of abstracted to look almost alien in character.  They're a little grotesque as well, but I think beautiful in a very uncommon way.  Here's the vase--in white, which accentuates its forms:

In blue glaze:

And my favorite--as with all of them in this line, accented with gold:

The candlesticks and candelabra are a little much, but I suppose on a giant table, with the vase as centerpiece, the whole thing would be very stunning--in blue and gold, respectively:

I don't think I've seen anyone eat a soft-boiled egg in my entire lifetime (must be a European thing), but just in case, here's an egg holder thing with amazing salt & pepper shakers:

And my favorite of these, without question, is the bowl.  It's about a foot in diameter:

Its ornamentation is flirting with being something 100 years old, but at the same time, in very subtle ways, it's quite visibly a brand new piece.  It's beyond me why, when looking at new decorative items, we always have to forget about any kind of artistry.  It's priced at $1500, which isn't too bad, but you're really getting something crafted for your money here.  I think it's exquisite.

I wasn't even going to talk about their fragrance line, until I took a closer look at this, and realized what it actually is--it's a very abstracted human figure inspired by traditional Lladró figurines (click it):

The sweater is a liquid aroma diffuser, the face is a scented candle, and the hair is a solid aroma diffuser.  It's almost funny in a whimsical sort of way.

A week or two after the show, they sent me an email with some pieces evidently released after they got back home, inspired by athletes, and just in time for the Olympics--a swimmer:

And a sprinter:

What I really like about these is how Classical they are.  Of course the ancient Greeks were always celebrating their athletes in artwork.  But then, if you look more closely, you see that these guys are wearing extremely high-tech sports gear.  I love that duality.

Lladró

800-634-9088

©2008, Ryan Witte