There’s a bit of a blur in the distinction between art and design. Functional products and merchandise can’t be classed as art can they?  Both go through a creative (and sometimes torturous) process  and then get tangled up in methods of selling and the exchange of money. Art and Design products use the language and methods of each other to do exactly the same thing to sell, to engage with an audience and to confront us with another way of seeing, making and living. And this language and process is even seeping into the high street; stores offer  “a range of carefully curated products” displayed in an almost gallery style by a named artist or designer.  Meanwhile in a bid to connect with a wider audience Art galleries shift from their intimidating surroundings to Fairs and Markets. Within all of this is the need to reflect a changing world, with Art, Design, and down the the business end Retail, all responding to a changing expectation from consumers; they’re wanting an experience, an emotional reaction, not just a passive presentation of products and work. So to provide the unexpected Art goes to the market Design goes to the gallery. You could even argue that retail’s love of the pop-up is like the underground art event. With all this borrowing from each other its difficult to see where art and design differ, collectors have become attracted to both further blurring the Art Design debate.

Last week Frieze Art fair popped up  in London and generated tens of millions of pounds of Art sales in a tent in Regents Park. You could not only see the work of  the artists  but also meet and even get temporary tattoo by one of them. Here’s David Shrigley tattooing I love O’s onto a willing participant.

At the same time as Frieze Super Design, now in its 4th year offered a smaller design alternative ; a show that brings together galleries and their limited edition pieces by some of the most innovative designers.  Super Design borrows the style and presentation of the art show to allow us to critique the work in the manner of a work of art . But its not art and its not really pretending to be art.  That’s not to denigrate the work on show here.  It simply has a function that art does not need to play. Art has no practical function; it grabs us on another level and draws on a range of  emotional reactions, amongst them the ability to shock. One of my favourite “reactions” from Frieze last week was another visitors exclamation “Ughhh! What is going through these people minds!?!”  Now to me the little animations we were peeping through holes to view were not that shocking at all; but it just shows how we all have our own thoughts on what art is.What Super Design does show is how designers have been experimenting, pushing the boundaries of what is functional, and playing with our curiosity  by appealing on a playful, aesthetic and emotional level.

On a playful level here is the work of  Marcus Tremonto,  he showed a number of his electroluminescent film lights, but here is his more mischievous work he did with Kidrobot’s Munny character.

The show owes more to theory behind Critical Design offered by London based design duo Dunne & Raby.  Designers have been pushed into creating products that conform to functional requirements and the means of mass production. Critical Design challenges this conformity and encourages experimentation on every level. As Dunne says “One of its roles is to question the limited range of emotional and psychological experiences offered through designed products. If you decouple design from the mass market, what do you get? A change of attitude and approach. So the role of Critical Design is to make us think and to raise awareness , expose assumptions, provoke action, spark debate – a way of looking at design and re imagining its possibilities beyond the narrow definition presented through the media and in shops.”

Grey Derivations by  Maarten Baas for Mitterrand+Cramer Design is a response to the edition process in relation to the production process. The man hours spent creating each piece and nuanced changes from the method of production made the notion of each being an edition nonsense. Apart from the desk light which can be created using a mould the other5  pieces in the series are unique. This approach has given Baas the freedom to create work in a spontaneous intuitive way  in his studio in the Dutch countryside.  The desk shown here would never be allowed to go into mass production, it wouldn’t be allowed in a shop. Once the desk is closed the two red front legs become horns poking out of the lid -you can just imaging the “health and safety” issues! Using design as a means of self expression doesn’t mean that work has to be handcrafted and exclusive. After all it was Baas who sold the cheapest design product of the Milan fair with his 99cent Iphone app.

Studio Makkink & Bey showed their De Amersfoot Chair. An advocate of Critical Design here are Jurgen Bey’s thought on the idea. “Critical Design is an area where I feel comfortable because I think it’s important to make your voice heard through design. Its not about being against things but about staying critical, particularly in the case of sustainable design. It’s about finding the right balance with progress. To change someones views you need to make them more curious . Its what I like about being a designer. You’re allowed to question things. Its not an exact science and there’s a big area where you can move quite freely and come to your answers. If you rethink things, the answers are about what you can do and how you can do it. You have your questions and ask what if….?’ Then you follow where this takes you.”

Dimitri Vangrunderbeek’s Lacquered Steel Cabinet (pictured below). Figures have been cut out of the steel and stride across the surface of the work casting shadows as light hits the piece. You get the sense of the figures moving as you walk past the piece.

Gareth Neal’s Urban Picnic transforms the ubiquitous bench. We’re familiar with the design but the only hand treatment we usually see on it is hand carved graffiti not intricate marquetry. The piece was a response to the question of “The Great British Weekend” and was originally displayed as a pop-up urban picnic in the east end of London

Skull rug by Timothy Liles- Having previously worked for Converse as a footwear designer Timothy has turned his hand to product design. Here he has combined the pop icon with a tradition of technique. This is a thick, double-sided, wool rug  made by the extremely skilled workers at Country Braid House in Tilton NH. They’re more used to making traditional rugs but they’ve applied the same technique to totally different subject matter creating a modern heirloom  countrybraidhouse.com

Edging back toward the macabre Stefan Strumbelhas taken the traditional cuckoo clock of his homeland, the Black Forest in Germany, and applied objects of popular culture soaked in bright and acidic colours.  Strumble has moved from being a graffiti artist into 3 dimensional work.

His work looks at the German concept of Heimat, roughly translated as homeland  “There is no English word for Heimat,” Strumbel explains. “Some people link Heimat to a place, for others it is a feeling.”  Strumble has replaced motifs associated with his homeland with items of popular culture that have no geographical link.

Skulls by Beware the Moon This is a quality wallpaper; each roll is handmade with a “no expense spared” attitude from the makers to keep the print as close to the original art work as possible.  And they’ve chosen a quality gent to high light this.. Insouciant, sartorially superior ,eyebrow quizzical, pondering the taste of his fag – sorry cigarette. Or possibly he’s standing opposite a wall hung with one of the more risqué papers in the range “She” featuring a naked lady. I’d say he’s pondering the latter.  Beware the Moon have a refreshingly witty approach to wallpaper design and production , hopefully some new designs are coming soon

I’ve mentioned Studio Job’s Industry in in earlier post on Marquetry but they’re always worth another look. In the beautiful work seen here they’ve interwoven skeletons and skull/gas masks onto the surface of their wardrobe.

 Industry Series by Studio Job.  Using a mix of contemporary and traditional  iconography they draw on the same themes and images used for the Gospel According to Saint Job displayed in Milan last year. Tanks, grenades ,helicopters, insects and butterflies, chimneys billowing smoke, skeletons all feature in this homage to the marquetry methods of André- Charles Boulle.  Dispensing with bright colours used in the Bavarian series the inlays look like fossils of an industrial age. Laser cut pieces of white birds eye maple have been set in Indian Rosewood in a symmetrical layout. We expect symmetry in marquetry but the effect here is like the inkblot patterns of Rorschach. Its no coincidence that these pieces are a commentary on the collective psyche and our concerns with the mass destruction associated with industrialism.

The work can be seen at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery and are sold as limited edition pieces starting at over $30,000.   

Curiously it is a fashion designer rather than a furniture designer who has probably done more to promote the craft. Stella McCartney has repeatedly used marquetry and commissioned UK companies to produce work in different forms for her new stores. For her London store Aryma were commissioned to produce a contemporary angel that glides across the wall. The use of colour and complexity of the piece is an eye opener to the versatility of marquetry. 

In her Milan store, the ground floor is covered in oak parquet arranged in a multicolored pattern created by the Israeli designer Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay for Established & Sons. The store opened in February 2010 and had the official launch during Salone del Mobile last week.

Toby Winteringham’s work made with Patternity is another example of colourful geometry. Pictured above is his Shift coffee table made of sycamore with coloured veneer. Its an exciting and bold use of marquetry and a wonderful example of how a traditional craft can be spliced with contemporary graphics. Shift was launched along with the Patternity Bureau (pictured below) at Salone Satellite this month.

 Since writing this I’ve found a rather wonderful blog on marquetry http://www.miartstudioblog.com/ Do please click through and amire the work.

Artist Yinka Shonibare covered walls, furniture and created clothes from traditional ‘African’ fabrics bought from Brixton market.  Although the fabrics look African,they are in fact Dutch and English. The designs appeal to African taste with colours and symbols of Africa mixed in with objects of life, for example mobile phones, and pictured above game consoles .  As Yinka says “They prove to have a crossbred cultural background quite of their own. And it’s the fallacy of that signification that I like. It’s the way I view culture—it’s an artificial construct.” 

I suppose with this in mind its ironic that Italian firm Moroso should create M’Afrique installation by American Stephen Burks and  SpaniardPatricia Urquiola.

“We wanted to showcase the creativity of a few of the great artists and exponents of contemporary African culture,” explains Patrizia Moroso, who devised the event, “because looking at Africa through the eyes of contemporary art, photography, architecture and design is perhaps the most appropriate way of approaching this vast, powerful continent, so creatively rich and diverse that today it is still one of the greatest sources of inspiration for modern design”.

Mixing recycling with traditional craft techniques is what we have come to regard as “African design” But companies like Moroso are now looking at using these skills, born out of necessity, to produce marketable products.

Seen below right is a design by Ayse Birsel & Bibi Sek being produced for the show. With traditional weaving skills which have previously been used on recycled cable, the artisans were set to work with new supplies to create products for the high end furniture market.

 And should you have your own idea or project that you would like to develop, Link Africa based in South Africa can help you get in touch with fair trade programmes who can produce your project.

http://www.linkafricahome.co.za/whatwedo.html

I’ve previously mentioned Philippe Bestenheider in my patchwork post but its worth showing his Binta chairs again “Binta was inspired by Africa. Its sculptural shape evokes African wood carvings, but its polyurethane rubber forms are softer. Like a baobab tree, Binta anchors itself firmly to the ground with thick, trunk-like feet whose elegant forms bring to mind the weighty baobab.” Gathered together they do look like a group of Yinka’s characters.

Building on his links in Africa and again using their traditional skills Philippe has gone on to produce his Kente range through Varaschin.

Traditional Kente woven cloth is produced in Ghana with each colour having a symbolic meaning. I’m not sure if Philippe’s colour selection is based on the symbolic meaning or purely on aesthetics , but heres a list of the symbolic meanings anyway, judge for yourself.

There is always something fascinating about the use of geometric construction in design. The extrapolation of a simple pattern into a more complex one tweaks the senses into looking more closely, trying to understand where the pattern begins and ends. As Karim Rashid said “It’s a way to move the eye and break up surfaces to bring illusion or entropy , to embellish and give richness to surfaces materials and objects. It can add emotion and meaning to the flat dull world”Islamic design has employed the mathematics of geometry to dramatic effect for centuries.  Here’s a few examples of how designer and artists have stripped back the ornamentation and used colour and geometry.

Above is the work of Matt W Moore the painter designer and illustrator. His work is inspired by sacred geometry, asymmetry and optical illusions. His Vectorfunk series uses a vivid colour palette.  “its about adding and refining layers to the point where I’ve got a well balanced, unique, powerful composition.          

www.mattwmoore.com

Coming up for AW09  Basso & Brooke Collection features their signature digital prints but this time with a distinctly geometric feel.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 Swatch by Hella Jongerius  Identical in shape, sections of coloured tiles are set in walnut marquetry on a simple low table. The coloured sections are made of individually cast polyurethane. Within each colour, different hues can be seen, orange within red, blue greys within white. Light can flow through some sections but not others. The piece holds with Hella’s vision of design offering options and possibilities.   www.jongeriuslab.com 

 Above is Pentagon by Thomas Tritsch   Inspired by medieval fortresses it demonstrates the innumerous possibilties of geometry. Each of the elements can be slotted together to suit the space or your mood! You can create curves, circles, straight lines.

http://www2.quinzeandmilan.tv/#/en/home/

Of course geometry isn’t just about the creation of flat tesselated patterns. Messing about with the angles and you suddenly have a chair – oh it sounds so simple! Thomas Feichtner’s FX10 Lounge chair pictured below is an example. Invert an angle or two and you have a chiseled chunk of a chair. The designer likens it to the angles cut to make igloos, and although it does look rather hard edged, the soft upholstery doesn’t make the sitter feel their on a block of ice! It does look really cool though…. yeah bad joke

Clouds by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec is a 3 dimensional installation that you construct yourself to create your own unique cloud. Using tiles that can be bent on the crease lines and elastic bands to join the tiles together the installation can either be hung from the wall or ceiling. You can rearrange your cloud or add to it create a multicoloured cloud. Its up to you how you use the pieces.

www.kvadratclouds.com

 And should you wish to have a play with geometry you can’t go wrong with David Sutton’s beautiful little book Islamic Design  A genius for Geometry. Available through Wooden Books  www.woodenbooks.com

Happy Easter!

Heres a great pic courtesy of the Wooster Collective

http://www.woostercollective.com/