Hasta La Ideas

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pemGuest post by Thom Moran/em/p

pPossibly the most visually striking showroom and collection at NEOCON this year is a href=”http://www.flor.com/”Interface FLOR’s/a “Memphis Under Foot.” Beyond the boldly patterned carpets, the showroom featured a whimsical romper-room like installation, an augmented reality game based on said romper room, boldly patterned wallpapers, and a wall of stacked objects painted white including televisions playing 80’s inspired videos like La Roux’s “Bullet Proof.” All of this added up to a brightly-colored overload of eighties-ness that was successful in creating a totalizing atmosphere./p

pBorrowing heavily from the now notorious early eighties Italian design collaborative Memphis, the company’s collection centers around “Memphis inspired” carpet tile systems designed by David Oakey. Interface’s and Oakey’s ambitions for the collection is to lighten the mood a little. As the American economy (hopefully) pulls out of this latest economic downturn, the idea is that design can be a source of joy and fun, instead of dour seriousness. Hence the return to the irreverence and levity of the Memphis group’s iconic and instantly recognizable style./p

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pThe elephant in the room, however, is the elephant down the hall. Another of Interface’s initiatives for this year was to bring artist Andries Botha of the a href=”http://www.humanelephant.org/”Human Elephant Foundation/a and his life size elephant sculpture made entirely of recycled tires called “Nomkhubulwane” to NEOCON. This move was meant to underscore Interface’s commitment to sustainability and to highlight their campaign, called “mission zero,” to have no impact on the environment by 2020. What was peculiar is that the sculpture was outside in front of the merchandise mart and all of the information about the elephant campaign was not in the showroom, but down the hall. This physical separation of the “fun” design of Memphis from the “serious” problem of the environment was emblematic of a deeper ambivalence running through the show./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/events/neocon_2010_interface_flor_pulled_out_the_memphis_big_time_16762.asp”(more…)/a
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