L’Arco della Pace, Martino Gamper, Italy 2009, veneer and plywood; Mirage, Rajiv Saini, India 2008, stainless steel
The Sense of Fanciful opens during Milan Design Week at the Nilufar Gallery in Milan, exploring the fanciful within contemporary design.
The Martino Gamper bookcase entitled L’Arco della Pace is a rainbow coloured piece in veneer and poplar plywood that’s able to be walked under- a joyous explosion of geometry and colour.
Gallery Nilufar mixes the works by Jorge Pardo and Rajiv Saini into a unique setting. Cuban-born Jorge Pardo is an internationally renowned artist, while Rajiv Saini is an established architect and designer, with a studio in Mumbai. Their work takes interior decoration and architecture and refigures it into functional sculptural objects.
Untitled, Jorge Pardo, 2003, paper, spray painting; Transition carpet, Haynes Robinson, Iran 2009, wool and silk
The Fresco and Transition collection of carpets by Haynes Robinson, from the USA, are an example of co-operative design. In this case, with the women of the nomad tribes living on the Zagros Mountains, in south-west Iran, who are amongst the best weavers in the world. The collections in hand-knotted wool and silk using natural dyes become an exercise of technique and imagination where the weavers’ fingers turn into brushes.
The fanciful is a constant element in design history, as it is always resurfacing, whimsically, in quite unexpected times and places. It can appear as nostalgia, perhaps as games made by joining together past and future pieces, or by linking natural and technological fragments. Normal things becoming extraordinary and extraordinary ones turn into everyday objects. The constant aim is to try to find ways of circumventing clichés and to align with today’s real life.
Litomatrice trumeau, Fornasetti, Italy 2010; Quark, Emmanuel Babled, Italy 2010, Carrara white marble
Barnaba Fornasetti reinvents the past exclusively for Nilufar. A collection named La Matrice di Fornasetti takes objects from Fornasetti’s back catalogue and covers them with the zinc-alloy plates used for the lithographic printing of his father Piero´s original pieces during in the Fifties. Barnaba Fornasetti used this archive to create unique pieces, using the zinc plates to cover desks designed by Gio Ponti, as well as new pieces.
The Quark low table by Emmanuel Babled was created with innovative technology, using an anthropomorphic robot to shape the Carrara marble in a given pattern, in conjunction with a 3D scanner. The level of perfection and the final effect of the object is as if die-cast glass. The object appears soft, sensual, with organic curves.
Re-Thonet 14, Andrea Salvetti, Italy 2009, aluminium; Dome Mazzolin di Fiori, Andrea Salvetti, Italy 2009, aluminium; Apparita, Andrea Salvetti, Italy 2001, bronze
Andrea Salvetti’s homage to the iconic Thonet no 14 chair (its 150 anniversary celebrated in 2009) takes us beyond wood by remaking the chair in aluminium.
Two works by Andrea Salvetti will be exhibited outdoors in the garden of Triennale Design Museum during Milan Design Week. The Dome Mazzolin di Fiori is made from oxidised aluminium flowers, silver, blue and gold. The second piece, the Apparita seat by Anrea Salvetti is made from bronze using lost wax process, plus smelting and polishing. Sheets are used to protect furniture from dust and reproducing the draping in bronze allows the designer to fix a moment in time forever – a way to stop time and create a sense of expectation that lasts forever.
Primitive, Nucleo; Erosion, Joseph Walsh, Ireland, 2009, ash
“The natural world around us consists of layers, and these layers record time. I want to explore layering in the natural world around us, how these layers have recorded time and how time has shaped them.” says designer Joseph Walsh describing his work. He looks at the patterns of erosion as a form and investigates the relationship between the original composition of material and eroded form. Limited Edition tables are made from rippled & olive ash, brushed and white oiled.
Nucleo continues to explore the concept of the primitive in the new collection exclusively designed for Nilufar. The lines diverge and evolve, erasing all excessive decoration. The pieces preserve and display their workmanship; as they are made entirely by hand, without the use of presswork and are finished with non-toxic resins that retain the marks and imperfections of manufacture.
Blueware, Studio Glithero, England 2009, ceramic
The Anglo-Dutch Studio Glithero’s new collection of Blueware vases was developed together with Vauxhall Collective. A photo-ceramic procedure, developed by the design studio forms the basis of the project. Photosensitive materials are applied to the objects as if they were photo print negatives. Then they are washed, fixed and exposed to the ultraviolet rays on a rotating device. Simple weeds growing on the pavements of London are pressed, dried and then applied to the ceramic surface. The ultraviolet rays turn the original white into a deep blue and Blueware objects became a pattern of real life.
The Sense of Fanciful runs between April 12 and May 31 2010 at Gallery Nilufar, 32 via della Spiga, Milan
Image credits: Studio Glithero photography by Petr Krejci
