Hasta La Ideas

Chains, ring pops and weapons in a master glass designer’s latest experiments with crystal

Though master of crystal and glass design Orfeo Quagliata, 39, has been producing his own transparent wonders for several years (he’s been working with glass since age 12 and heads up Phuze Design), a recent collaboration with Swarovski Elements has led the Mexico-based artist to explore a more subversive side of the material. After the success of his initial partnership with the crystal leaders (he made five exclusive martini shakers for Skyy Vodka, like one that evokes Mr. Big’s character and a lipstick tube, for the Mexico City Sex and the City 2 premiere), Quagliata’s new work featured in a show at San Francisco, California’s Velvet Da Vinci’s gallery this month makes almost a 180. Celebrating both the beauty of Swarovski’s crystals and showing a “lack of respect” by fearlessly grinding and melting the pieces, Quagliata’s irreverence and a playful approach to material mark his sleek designs.

Among his more outlandish explorations in jewelry, glassware and sculpture is the aptly named “Crystal Death,” a design inspired by gladiators’ iconic morningstar weapon. This crystal implement is a prime example of Quagliata’s tendency to transform something with negative associations (in this case, a piece traditionally used for killing) into a stunning work of art.

Quagliata describes the show’s one-off designs (that inspired Phuze’s new production line) as “coming out of necessity.” While he primary occupies himself with beauty and combining unexpected materials, Quagliata also focuses on functionality. In the case of his geometric glassware, the cups are made from Pyrex (a sturdy heat- and chemical-resistant material) for those craving chic, faceted mugs for their coffee. Drawing from his work for the exhibition, Quagliata simplified the production design from tall glasses with elaborate handles to short cups with a single colorful knob.

Other offshoots of the exhibition include Phuze’s Disco Line for which Quagliata removes the crystals’ foil with acid and fills hollow pieces with them. Unlike standard jewelry with crystals fixed into settings, the Disco Line’s pieces are “shimmering little worlds for the crystals to live in.” A standout from the line’s delicate rings, earrings and pendant-like pieces, the “Alpha Chain” contrasts the lightness of the crystals with heavy steel links.

For a look at Quagliata’s one-of-a-kind pieces, catch his show before it ends 28 August 2011. Visit Phuze Design for a look at Quagliata’s other jewels, like his glammed-up glass candy rings colored with ground crystals. Currently showing at Swarovski’s booth for Accessory Circuit Intermezzo in New York, his work will hit London and Shanghai soon. While his pieces are now available for purchase from his London distributor, they will be sold at MoMA next year.

One sign that a design has reached iconic status is that it can be found in the collection and the executive offices of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Such is the case with Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s “Clouds” for Kvadrat, the three-dimensional, modular tiles that evoke plush barnacles by way of Buckminster Fuller (and, at least until the recent renovations got underway, adorned the workspace of Cooper-Hewitt director Bill Moggridge). The Bouroullecs are reuniting with the Danish textile company for a collaborative project at next month’s London Design Festival.

The Victoria & Albert Museum, which serves as the hub of the nine-day festival, invited the Bouroullecs to choose any space for their installation, and they opted for the Raphael Gallery. Home to the tapestry designs, or cartoons, commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel, the famed gallery will host “Textile Field,” an installation that will cover approximately 2,500 square feet of the gallery floor. “We conceived an expansive, colored foam and textile piece to produce a sensual field on which to comfortably lounge while meditating on the surrounding Raphael Cartoons,” said the Bouroullecs in an e-mail. The installation will be on view from September 15 through September 25, and the brothers will join Kvadrat CEO Anders Byriel for a free talk about the project on September 19 at the V&A.

(Photo: Studio Bouroullec)

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We stopped by the ‘Thai Materials’ exhibition which recently opened at Material ConneXion’s New York City headquarters. The show features a collection of products, prototypes and case studies that demonstrate practical uses for new and emerging eco-friendly materials from Thailand.

There’s a broad range of indigenous materials to checkout including; papers made with banana plant fibers, edible packaging derived from casava starch, bio-active fabrics made with bacteria cultured in pineapple juice, and particle board made from recycled post-consumer denim.

The exhibition runs through till August 31, 2011, and you never know who you might see there—we just missed a McQueen-clad Daphne Guinness visiting the materials library.

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Billowing fabric mushrooms by New York designers Situ Studio have cropped up in the great hall of the Brooklyn Museum.

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Pleated fabric surrounds the 16 columns that support the ceiling of the first-floor hall, located between galleries, a cafe and a bookshop.

Acrylic-stone benches and ledges encircle the base of each mushroom.

The exhibition will remain in place until 15 January 2012.

Other fabric interiors from the Dezeen archive include a hotel with a rippling ceiling and a showroom where translucent curtains hang from above.

Photography is by Keith Sirchio.

Here’s some more information from the materials supplier:

Brooklyn Museum utilizes HI-MACS® Solid Surface in the ten month long “reOrder”exhibit

The Brooklyn Museum is a lasting landmark in the New York area that brings more than 450,000 visitors annually to see its acclaimed artistic temporary exhibitions and permanent collections. The Great Hall of the museum, located on the first floor, is a 10,000 square foot room filled with 16 giant columns. The hall which is positioned between the café, museum book store and other creative exhibits, acts as a common area for museum visitors and personnel. It is also currently hosting an exhibit called, “reOrder,” until January 15 of 2012.

“reOrder” is a site-specific installation created by Situ Studio, an architectural design studio founded in 2005 in Brooklyn, New York. The installation alters the current classical architecture to help visitors understand the impressive scale of the main entrance, as well as explore the architectural ornamentation that allows the Grand Hall to not only be artfully decorated, but also functional.

In order to create the entire installment, LG Hausys donated its solid surfacing material for the project. Slabs of acrylic HI-MACS® Solid Surfaces were used to construct the Great Hall’s furniture. Wrapped benches and tables were positioned at the bottom of the columns, which currently are covered in elaborate fabric designs (pictured above).

“LG Hausys’ solid surfacing was used to construct furniture around the base of the 16 large classical columns in the Great Hall,” said Wes Rozen, one of Situ Studio’s five founding partners.  “A specialized computer was used to precisely cut pieces of HI-MACS®, which were then thermoformed into a range of curved shapes and brought together in wedges to encircle the base of the columns.  The finished furniture elements appear as extensions to the existing Doric architectural order, or as entirely new type of architectural ornamentation which is also functional.”

Because HI-MACS® Solid Surfaces can be precisely thermoformed, or designed in virtually any size or three-dimensional shape, Situ Studio approached LG Hausys in order to use their materials. LG Hausys donated the material, and a sub-contractor finalized the thermoforming and seating installation. The designers from Situ Studio chose the White Quartz color variation from LG Hausys’ HI-MACS® Solid Surfaces Classic collection.

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Rainforest by Patrick Nadeau for Boffi	The Drop Series by Olivia Decaris	NET by Numen/For Use

Exploring undiscovered art scenes in small towns around the globe

The first in a series of shows exposing smaller towns as undiscovered creative hubs, “My Winnipeg” highlights noteworthy artists inhabiting the world’s coldest city. Put on by Paris’ Maison Rouge Gallery, each exhibit is twofold, serving as both broad studies of the selected city’s overall culture and as work relevant to the international contemporary art scene.

My Winnipeg raises questions about how Winnipeg, Canada may have influenced each artist, in terms of climate, geography and history. Could its impossible weather— comprised of harsh, long winters, floods and mosquito-invaded summers—be behind the sleepy state-of-mind imprinting some of the work? Is its location in the middle of an Indian territory the key to many of the artists’ relationships with mythical spirits? Does the city’s former post as a cosmopolitan trading center influence its current surge of dynamic creativity?

Challenged with how to turn this ethnological approach into an art show, the gallery supplys meaningful background information while allowing the works to speak for themselves, devoid of local particularities. In the end, the artists appear to share similar concerns about society as their peers do in bigger metropolises.

Works by artists like Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Wanda Koop, Kent Monkman, Bonnie Marin and Diana Thorneycroft span all mediums—from painting to performance art—to create a definitive visual statement about their native town. Standing out among them is Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin’s 2007 documentary, also dubbed “My Winnipeg.” The film taps Winnipeg’s folkloric history, featuring beautifully hallucinatory images, speaking to Maddin’s sentiment that cinema is a haunted media since it shows people and things which are not really present.

“My Winnipeg” is currently on view at Maison Rouge and runs through 25 September 2011.