Dieter Roth and the Chocolate Factory


Scrumdiddlyumptious. Chocolate busts of artist Dieter Roth in progress at Hauser & Wirth’s new downtown NYC exhibition space. (Photos: UnBeige)

Willy Wonka and Sigmund Freud would surely have agreed that making 385 chocolate busts of one’s father is not something that can be rushed. And so, with the late Dieter Roth‘s “Selbstturm” (Self Tower) barely half full of chocolate casts, his son, Björn, agreed that the makeshift kitchen–think plywood, a quartet of hot plates, aluminum stockpots, rubber molds–and the young people painstakingly producing them would become part of “Björn Roth. Dieter Roth,” the major exhibition that this week inaugurated Hauser & Wirth‘s massive downtown space, designed by Annabelle Selldorf.

“We didn’t have time to finish the chocolate tower,” said Björn, 51, standing before the bustling kitchen installation at Monday’s press preview. “So we decided that we would keep it all going until we’re finished.” Conceived by Dieter in 1994, the tower consists of a 16-foot-tall steel frame slotted with glass shelves on which chocolate busts of the artist are displayed, all facing, featurelessly, in the same direction. “Normally this is not a theme of the piece, but I like that it looks a bit like a skyscraper,” added Björn, who arrived in New York last month with his twentysomething sons Oddur and Einar to create the exhibition. “The thing is, it’s impossible to make a tower like that with cheap chocolate. You need first-quality, because otherwise it’s not stable. It will break.” He walked over to a stack of large white boxes stamped “E. Guittard“–for another family business, that of the Guittard Chocolate Company–stuck his hand in the one on top, and popped a morsel of dark chocolate couverture into his mouth. “Go ahead and taste it,” he invited. “It’s the best kind.”

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Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Cologne 2013: squishy stools shaped like animals and a family of multi-storey glass jars are among the objects designed for an exhibition during last week’s interior design event Passagen in Cologne (+ slideshow).

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Pets stool by Hanna Emelie Ernsting

Objects for the Neighbour took place at Passagen, which runs alongside trade fair imm cologne, and featured eight designers’ work inspired by the concept of neighbourhood.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Pets stool by Hanna Emelie Ernsting

Among the objects shown were the Pets stools by Frankfurt-based designer Hanna Emelie Ernsting, a collection of stools with loose fabric seats that fold into animal shapes. In 2011, Ernsting won the [D3] Contest in Cologne for a couch that’s perfect for stroppy people.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Sample Avenue by Karoline Fesser

Cologne-based designer Karoline Fesser contributed Sample Avenue, a family of glass vessels with stacking floors that line up like houses. Last year in Cologne, Fesser launched a modular seating collection made up of giant cushions.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Sample Avenue by Karoline Fesser

Inspired by a foreign neighbour who moved to the watchmaking town of Biel to be with his partner, Swiss designer Florian Hauswirth designed a pair of clocks for two time zones. We’ve featured lots of designs by Hauswirth, including an experimental game of chess.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: (T)here by Florian Hauswirth

Also included was a pair of room dividers by Cologne-based designer Thomas Schnur, whose previous work includes a wooden bench that sits on logs instead of legs.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Barrier by Thomas Schnur

Wiesbaden-based designer Sarah Böttger came up with a collection of household objects including a broom, dustpan and door stopper.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Common Things by Sarah Böttger

Frankfurt-based designer Kai Linke contributed stoneware vessels that also serve as side tables, inspired by the canning jars used in his home town to preserve food. We previously featured vases and side tables that Linke made by sand-blasting timber and casting the resulting shapes in ceramic.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Buurman by Kai Linke

Belgian designer Julien Renault’s trio of chairs was inspired by his elderly neighbour’s habit of reading the newspaper on a park bench. Renault previously won the [D3] Contest in Cologne with a collection of hand-forged aluminium furniture.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Park Chair by Julien Renault

Finally, German designer Hanna Krüger came up with a lighting collection inspired by ballet costumes, where each light represents an individual character with its own silhouette.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Figurines by Hanna Krüger

We published lots of products from imm cologne this year, including the interlocking wooden shelving that won the [D3] Contest – see all designs from Cologne 2013.

Objects for the Neighbour at Passagen

Above: Figurines by Hanna Krüger

Here’s some information from the organisers:


From 14th through 20th January 2013, the exhibition Objects for the Neighbour envisions what initially is out of reach. The focus is on the neighbour: eight designers create objects on the subject of neighbourhood, which they will display throughout the Passagen in Cologne.

The designers Sarah Böttger (D), Hanna Ernsting (D), Karoline Fesser (D), Florian Hauswirth (CH), Hanna Krüger (D), Kai Linke (D), Julien Renault (B) und Thomas Schnur (D) have already displayed their work at national and international fairs. They are united by friendship and their interest in serially produced products. With Objects for the Neighbour they engage in a joined topic, which is generally accessible. However, individually it can be very different in detail and complexity.

The neighbour – is it an actual person or rather a vague guess? Perhaps he is a mirage, wishful thinking or memory. Where is the start of a neighbourhood to begin with? At the own front door, the boundary of the city, the region, the country, the continent or the planet? Or does neighbourhood start within the family, friendship or a relationship?

Thus the subject neighbourhood therefore appears vague and fuzzy. Only through approaches and decisions it obtains an identity, which in turn can be divined based on the actual product.

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In Between: Keun Young Park’s metaphysical paper collages

In Between

A sculptor by training, Korean-born Keun Young Park masterfully arranges shredded paper into textured self-portraits. After photographing herself in various poses, Park digitally manipulates and resizes the images, prints them, then tears them up by hand into thousands of pieces. From there she reconfigures each sliver of the wreckage…

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LIFE: Artist Sage Vaughn explores the harmonic disparity between man and nature

LIFE

In a new exhibition at LA’s Scion AV Installation space, artist Sage Vaughn questions the nature of human existence with contemplative works that juxtapose attractive and repulsive imagery. Appropriately titled, “LIFE” spans a bevy of media and allegorical iconography that showcase Vaughn’s interest in creating “a body of work…

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Inside the Mind of Lola Montes Schnabel

When asked about her creative influences, artist and filmmaker Lola Montes Schnabel doesn’t hesitate, reeling off a list of 22 names that ranges from Niki Logis (Schnabel’s professor at Cooper Union, where she earned a BFA in 2008), Brancusi, and Maya Deren to Victor Hugo, Azzadine Alaïa, and, last but not least, Julian Schnabel, her father. The younger Schnabel is continuing the family tradition of multimedia multitasking with stunning results. This evening she’ll debut her most recent paintings–including “The Melting Pot” (2012), the watercolor pictured at left–at the opening of “Within Reach,” an exhibition at Southampton, New York-based Tripoli Gallery‘s Manhattan pop-up space. Schnabel recently took time to answer our questions about her latest series of “glimpses into the struggling subconscious” and the year ahead.

Does your new series of paintings have a particular theme or subject matter?
Yes, they are about limitations, capturing the boundlessness and the infinite spirit in all things that were here before humankind. These are landscapes that are similar to the womb.

Have you seeing your work in other media, particularly film, influence or shape your approach to painting?
Film and any form of poetry has an impact on my paintings. Every idea deserves its own medium. When I have an idea I often wonder which medium would capture that most accurately. The ocean, for instance. The ocean is constantly moving, so if I can’t look at it in real time then the closest thing would be to paint what I see in it–my own version of it–or to film it. I cannot see myself taking photographs of the sea.
continued…

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