The SNAP AssemblyThe SNAP Assembly | The SNAP Assembly

ART :: James Turrell’s light obsession

ams — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:29:10 +0000

For his fervent private collectors, James Turrell’s celestial skyspaces are an exercise in blind faith. The temperamental artist regards them as test runs for his life’s work in the Arizona desert. Somehow, everyone’s happy.With his long white beard and measured manner of speech, the acclaimed light artist James Turrell cultivates the image of a cosmic cowboy. It’s a compelling presentation, and an effective tool in his long-running campaign to seduce patrons and collectors into what he describes as “another kind of seeing.”

The “skyspaces” and “dark adaptations” Turrell creates for the homes, gardens, swimming pools, screening rooms, pagodas and pyramids of private collectors – almost anywhere the artist determines that the arrival of light at dawn and its departure at dusk can be captured to its full, revelatory effect – may differ in attribute and design, but they all pay tribute to and serve Turrell’s higher calling: the Roden Crater Project, northeast of Flagstaff, Ariz., that is his inspiration and his burden and will one day be the centerpiece of his substantial legacy.

In the late 1970s, he optimistically informed the Dia Arts founder and collector Philippa de Menil that the giant sky observatory he was planning to sculpture into the extinct volcano would be complete by 2000. “We’re closing in on that date now!” he says, impishly. After all, when your work is concerned with the movements of the cosmos, what are a few years here and there? Since Turrell is constantly refining his ideas about light and space, there’s no real expectation he will ever declare it done. Then again, he insists, “I didn’t expect it to be my life’s work. It’s just this strange furrow I’ve chosen to dig.”

For now, Turrell’s Roden Crater is closed to visitors. But this summer the art world heavens will align for fans of the artist, with concurrent shows at the Guggenheim in New York, LACMA in Los Angeles and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. In addition, Turrell has scheduled a series of tours of the Crater (patrons only) – all serving to affirm him as a visionary artist whose medium is light itself. “I want these spaces to engage you, your perception, and for you to be conscious of how you are engaging your senses,” he explains.

The initiation of a collector into Turrell’s realm can be protracted, often taking years between a buyer’s receipt of the artist’s plans and a work’s completion. (A private Turrell commission typically costs up to $2 million). Thereafter, Turrell’s collectors, “some very idiosyncratic if not totally eccentric people,” as he puts it, are required to maintain the work to exacting specifications.

In return, collectors gain something more. In addition to those hotly sought invites to the Crater, they become adjunct participants in his celestial field studies, entries in a geographical sketchbook in which he explores his evolving notions about light and space. To date, he’s installed 82 private and institutional skyspaces, each carefully tuned to its environment and light characteristics. “I’ve been practicing the repertoire I’m assembling at the¬†Crater on all these collectors,” the artist, 70, says, pausing to stroke his beard. “I don’t think they feel used, but there is a direct relation.”

In describing the importance of journey in his pieces, Turrell mentions a night-blooming cereus known as the Queen of the Night. One could see the flower cactuses bloom in the desert, he suggests, or in a greenhouse in Gramercy Park, where he keeps an apartment. “It’s the same object of perception but a completely different experience,” he explains. Likewise, it’s entirely different working with the soft, moisture-laden light of Scotland or Ireland (where he once lived on an island) as compared with the hard, high-altitude desert light of Arizona. On a recent trip to Beijing, Turrell found the light caused by the smog so severe that the foreground light bore almost no relation to the background – similar to the effect J. M. W. Turner (like Mark Rothko, a hero) must have seen in 19th-century London. “I can’t believe how prescient he was,” Turrell says. “He was painting what he saw, and that was before Impressionism.”
Turrell’s obsession with light, which may have originated with his stint as a high-altitude reconnaissance pilot, turns on the cusp of its coming and going. His goal, as he says, is to capture light as if in a dream: “We come into sunrise with dark-adapted eyes, so we’re more sensitive to light in the morning.” But even a guru knows that there are limits to what his followers will do in their quest for illumination. Art collectors aren’t known for rising early, he points out, “so I’d be a fool if I just dealt with sunrise.”

This article originally appeared in NY Times T Mag – HERE,

by¬†EDWARD HELMORE

¬†

Visit interactive slideshow of James Turrell’s work – HERE

DESIGN :: BOCCI at Euroluce, Milan Design Week

ams — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:47:38 +0000

The Euroluce lighting pavilion at the Rho Fiera official exhibition grounds not only showcases elite lighting companies, but this year revealed that even in the pervading challenging financial climate in Europe, fresh new blood can make a strong, bold and successful statement.

Entering the global design stage¬†Bocci¬†was invited to exhibit at Milan design doyenne¬†Rossana Orlandi‚Äôs epiphanous store in 2008, with repeat appearances until 2012. Taking the big leap to join the official exhibition space is no mean feat, and¬†Bocci¬†proudly showcased collections shoulder to shoulder with the surrounding pavilions of elite brands¬†FLOS,¬†Luce Plan, Lasvit and Swarovski.

The 250 square meter installation structure was designed by Isreali-born, Canadian based architect and lighting designer Omer Arbel, also the creative director of Bocci. Aside from his achievements within architectural disciplines, Arbel explored glass fabrication processes in the development of Bocci‚Äôs unique, and bespoke collections.

Blurring boundaries between the practices of building, industrial design and material research, Bocci remain independent, resisting outsourcing the production of original design pieces, with the manufacturing facility co-located at their Vancouver headquarters.

Fully equipped glass casting, blowing shops and a ceramics atelier are housed with offices, warehousing and the design studio ‚Äì connecting designers, technicians and salespeople in the renovated art deco building, previously home to a printing company.

Among the Milan installation was the new light 21, an elegant fusion of porcelain, borosilicate glass, stainless steel, and electrical hardware. Inspired by the sporadic arrangement that barnacles make on a rock surface, raw white porcelain are wrapped around frosted blown Borosilicate glass trumpet shapes. The result contrasts organic diffused light passing through the translucent white porcelain skin and a sharp, crisp light passing through the frosted component, visible on the interior of each pendant.

‚ÄúTraditionally porcelain is slip cast or sculpted into very specific forms‚Äù, says Arbel. ‚ÄúWe have developed a fabrication method that yields different forms in every itineration. The material is allowed to bend and fold according to its own intrinsic logic, thus every piece produced is original.‚Äù

Thus ‚Äì along with other Bocci lighting presented ‚Äì the impurities achieved during the hand-made fabrication process results in each lamp possessing unique characteristics.

Read the original blog post HERE on Share Design.

For more head to bocci.ca ¬†//¬†www.omerarbel.com

Images: Bocci and Anne-Maree Sargeant // The SNAP Assembly

DESIGN :: SNAP reporting on FLOS at Euroluce for Share Design

ams — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:49:56 +0000

FLOS, one of the most iconic of all Italian lighting companies, was formed in 1962, collaborating with many maestros from the post war Italian design era, among them Achille and Piero Castiglioni and Tobia Scarpa; with the Castiglioni brothers designing the first FLOS showroom that opened in Milan in 1968.

Garnering a stellar line-up of big name designers, over fifty years, FLOS has been responsible for producing lighting regarded the world over to be iconic, with a catalogue that includes pieces by Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Marcel Wanders and Jasper Morrison, to name but a few of the famous designers in the FLOS stable.Using the iconic FLOS lamp¬†Parentesi, a 1972 design by Achille Castilglioni, Konstantin Grcic extended the original idea was to create a light source that can slide vertical from floor to ceiling with the light source capable of being rotated on a 360 degree radius. Given the fundamental shift in lighting design from conventional bulbs and shades to new light sources ‚Äì the ultra-flat LED disk appears as a sun hanging from a wire, and a small rectangular box at the base houses the electronic components and a soft touch switch.

The¬†Marc Newson¬†design OROTUND is a luminous halo that projects indirect LED light source from the wall. Fun and almost pop art like, the injection-moulded plastic structure is available in white, grey and olive green.

One of the most highly praised collections in the FLOS presentation was from London-based Cypriot designer¬†Michael Anastaassiades. String lights, suspended in various directions across a room on black electric, lead the minimal cords to be juxtaposed by simple geometric spherical or conical shades, that provide a warm LED light.

From a distance appears to float within the space, the result of Brit lighting designer¬†Paul Cocksedgesought to circumnavigate the use of conventional wires, visible switches and cables. The Japanese-style paper shade is suspended by ‚ÄòCapillary-thin‚Äô nylon wires, and appears to float within the space.

Designed to be partially or fully concealed, and leaving only the LED light source to protrude as a down-light, each fixture can be angled to create directional light as the user or space commands.

For more head to¬†www.flos.com¬†// earlier post on FLOS LED colour programmed wall sculptures by Ron Gilard – HERE

Read the original post at SHARE DESIGN – HERE

INTERIOR :: Paris Apartment – Clever use of Small Space!!

ams — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:00:39 +0000

French firm¬†betillon / dorval-bory¬†used manipluated light qualities to enhance this clever design that mazimises the use of a very small footprint.

From the architects:

Taking a scientific approach to light within the Paris apartment, applying colour¬†rendering index (CRI), a fundamental criteria for evaluating light that assesses the homogeneity of colour rendering with respect to¬†spectral power distribution (SPD.) a low CRI range, for example, results in a loss of colour range.

Given the technical considerations of¬†the project, lighting with alternately low or high CRI is composed according to the program– the kitchen and living room required¬†color distinguishing illumination, while the bed and shower merely require monochromatic light.

The bipolarity of the light quality¬†helps shape the space, instead dictating use, circulation and paths of movement free of a plan and following the logic of composition¬†generated by light.

images ¬© betillon /dorval-bory // Story sourced via @designboom

ART :: Marisa Purcell paintings

ams — Sat, 04 May 2013 00:57:16 +0000

Emerging Sydney artist Marisa Purcell is instinctive and experimental in her acrylic on linen paintings. Referencing artist Fra Angelico to Rothko, her latest body of work Murmuration recently exhibited in a solo show at Brisbane’s Edwina corlette gallery.

edwinacorlette.com¬†//¬†marisapurcell.com

LIGHT :: Ron Gilard for FLOS – LED Colour Wall

ams — Fri, 03 May 2013 02:08:17 +0000

The Euroluce lighting fair accompanies Milan’s Salone del Mobile on alternate years, and this year Italian light maestros FLOS were widely acknowledged to be one of the best overall presentations at the 2013 design week.

The evolution of light technology in recent years has seen the demise of the inefficient edison bulb, and the dawn of the LED era – the result being that lighting is now more about the affect of light as opposed to the former dominance of the design of the shade.

A dominant trend is programed colour changes within an installation, creating the affect of an ever-changing sculpture.

The images above were taken in the FLOS showroom in Milan, the fixture ‘Wall Piercing 4′ designed by Ron Gilard, featured programmed LED lighting in an ever changing colour palette.

www.flos.com

IMAGES (c) The SNAP Assembly

DESIGN :: Wallpaper* best debut brands in Milan

ams — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:39:17 +0000

PlueerSmitt

Young Swiss designers Olivier Smitt and Dominic Plueer met while working on the design development team at Alfredo H√§berli, where they bonded over their love of minimalism and abstract design. They presented the results of their first ever collaboration, under their studio name of PlueerSmitt, at this year’s Salone. The collection comprises an inverted blown glass vase, a wool rug featuring overlapping layers of colour, and two small side tables – one made from CNC-milled slabs of Onyx marble and another cast in three colours of beracryl resin

The debut collection of Swiss practice¬†PlueerSmitt,¬†Side table,¬†Onyx’ table,¬†Vase No.1′,¬†The studio’s debut rug

Wonderglass

Combining the artisanship of Venetian master glass blowers with the talents of big-name designers, new lighting brand Wonderglass launched with panache during this year’s Salone. The Venice- and London-based brand is headed up by Established & Sons’ CEO Maurizio Mussati, whose experience as managing director of lighting at Moooi and director at Flos will also come in handy. For the first collection, he called upon design superstars Jamie Hayon, Nendo, Zaha Hadid and Nao Tamura to create chandeliers inspired by the city of Venice. The designs range from Tamura’s atmospheric interpretation of floating buoys, to Zaha’s spectacular flock of suspended crystals.

Pictured: ‘Flow[t]‘ chandelier by Nao Tamura, ‘Black Bat’ chandelier by Nendo,¬†‘Swarm’ chandelier by Zaha Hadid

Made in Ratio

London-based Australian designer Brodie Neill launched his new design brand Made in Ratio with Theo Theodorou (formerly of Haunch of Venison Gallery) in Zonca e Zonca gallery. Their first collection comprises five core pieces, including an almost impossibly simple chaise lounge in plywood and a three-legged trestle in aluminium. A celebration of design on the designer’s terms, all pieces are highly sculptural and experimental in form while their colourful nature will give the designs a longer shelf life as they can be evolved to suit interior trends.

Pictured: ‘Cowrie’ chairs,¬†Installation view at Zonca e Zonca gallery in Milan,¬†‘Cowrie’ day bed

Hinika

Australian designer Jarrod Lim studied furniture and industrial design at Melbourne’s RMIT University but got his real design education in Europe, where he cut his teeth working for respected names such as Patricia Urquiola and SCP. Now based in Singapore, Lim has been working closely with a local factory, with whom he has founded Hinika – a new brand that fuses Lim’s international design perspective with Singaporean craftsmanship. Using a mix of locally-sourced wood and US hardwoods, their debut collection of tables, chairs and a bird house is the perfect marriage of eastern and western design sensibilities.

Pictured: ‘Bezier’ tables,¬†‘Kikari’ tables

Vano Alto

Working out of an old hayloft in Tuscany’s picturesque Pisan hills, ceramicist Paola Mariani and sculptor Vittorio Cavallini are the founders of new design studio Vano Alto. After realising their combined creative potential while working on a house renovation together, the duo began working with craftspeople from Pisa to Florence to build a collection of furniture, lighting and ceramics. Combining materials such as wood, Plexiglas, steel and leather, their debut collection has a sculptural quality that showcases the pair’s artistic talents.

Pictured: Vano Alto’s debut jugs,¬†A series of vases

Officine Tamborrino

Italian company Scaff System has been manufacturing industrial steel shelving since 1957. However, this year the company decided to branch out into new markets with the launch of Officine Tamborrino – a new sub brand that produces steel furniture for the home and office. With a distinctive style that references the company’s mid-century heritage, Officine Tamborrino’s debut collection includes a bookcase, chest of drawers, desk, chair, floor lamp and task lamp all made using simple folded steel constructions.

Pictured: The brand’s Salone installation,¬†’OT1′ floor lamp, ‘OT 57′ desk, ‘OT2′ table lamp and ‘Lambda’ chair

THIS STORY WAS PUBLISHED IN WALLPAPER*MAGAZINE ONLINE, Images courtesy of respective design brands;¬†Text by Ali Morris

DESIGN :: Louis Vuitton – Objets Nomade

ams — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:18:30 +0000

Louis Vuitton commissioned a collection of furniture and objects during Design Miami. Themed around the brand’s heritage of embracing the nomadic interpretations of the many nations in which the luxury brand is represented, the collection, aptly entitled Nomade, features works by Brazilian brothers Fernando & Humberto Campana, and Brit duo Barbar Osgerby, each piece has been precisely executed by LV ateliers, and made available as a limited edition object.

Each designer was invited to take the nomadic notion of LV luggage as the inspiration point, resulting in a conceptual collection of portable objects showcased last December in Miami.

Swiss design trio¬†Atelier O√Ø¬†used long strips of leather and gold rivets to create a hammock inspired by the pinched shape of pasta ribbons.

Brits Barbar Osgerby created a leather slung, solar-powered ¬†lantern, also rechargeable by a concealed USB port; and¬†French designer¬†Christian Liaigre¬†produced a portable travel desk in sycamore wood, leather and aluminium, which folds up into a small briefcase form.

MORE on Objets Nomades fron Louis Vuitton:

Louis Vuitton announces Objets Nomades, a limited edition collection of foldable furniture and travel accessories produced in collaboration with leading international designers. These contemporary pieces will be exhibited and available in the New Bond Street Maison in December 2012. The rest of the collection will debut at Art Basel/Design Miami also in December.

Encapsulating the spirit of travel synonymous with Louis Vuitton, the travel desk, stool, hammock and lamp are all made using beautiful nomade leather and have portability at the core of their design. The pieces reference Louis Vuitton and his son Georges‚Äô original bespoke travel commissions from the 19th Century, such as a trunk replete with a folding horsehair mattress for a trip to the Congo, or a trunk with a pull-out desk and a typewriter station. This bespoke service has been reinterpreted for the 21st Century to create a selection of collectible design items that are both beautiful in their form yet also functional in their design.

To create the collection Louis Vuitton has tapped into a pool of design talent. Founded in 1991 in Switzerland by the Neuveville trio Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis and Patrick Reymond, Atelier O√Ø is an international player in architecture, design and set design. Inspired by the expertise behind Louis Vuitton‚Äôs canvas trunk, they have conceived the simple yet spectacular hammock, with its sophisticated ribbons of leather and rivets gilded with fine gold.

Internationally acclaimed designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby founded their studio in 1996 after graduating with Master‚Äôs degrees in Architecture from The Royal College of Art in London.¬†Most recently being responsible for the design for the Olympic torch, their work is held in permanent collections around the world including the V&A Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Design Museum, London. Their beautiful glass bell lamp for the collection exhibits simple lines and shape, and when encased in the nomade leather carry case demonstrates how design can celebrate the traditional in a modern way.

The folding stool, also by Atelier Oi, makes use of Louis Vuitton‚Äôs leather savoir faire, drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of origami whilst embodying all the label‚Äôs values of simplicity, elegance and functionality. A special membrane works as a hinge for the leather panels, allowing the stool to be unfolded into a seat in one single movement once unbuckled from the carry strap.

After graduating from the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Christian Liaigre became an artistic director then an interior designer. Since 1981 he has been designing collections of simple furniture with clean lines. Inspired by nature, the portable travel desk in sycamore wood, leather and aluminium was originally created for Louis Vuitton in 1990 after a chance encounter with a Tanzania based Brit who dreamed of a desk to observe his captive-bred lion cubs that could ‚Äòbe folded up in the back of a Jeep‚Äô. It is being reissued in 2012 as part of this limited collection.

VIDEO :: Front for BOOO, Milan Salone del Mobile

ams — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:27:00 +0000

Milanese design doyenne Rossana Orlandi curated a contemporary installation in the historic 19C house Museo Bugatti, in the heart of historic central Milan.

Set within the context of an almost perfectly preserved interior, cutting edge design pieces sat juxtaposed by ornate panelling, frescoed ceilings, canopied beds, ornate fixtures, heavy lead glass windows, and armoury that comprised helmets, swords and shields – the result transporting visitors back in time.

A highlight of the curated installation showcased during last month’s Salone del Mobile, or Milan Design Week, was the Surface Tension light by Swedish collective Front, for Dutch lighting brand BOOO.

Soap bubbles form around an LED light source, and as each bubble forms it gradually forces it’s predecessor/s to burst. Produced in a limited edition of just 20 pieces, and priced in a category that art and design collectors would generally consider to be fair, watching the lamp in motion is nothing short of captivating!

Enjoy this brief video (raw footage):

Below is more from BOOO :

A bubble is brief and bursts at your touch. But while it lasts it catches the light and reflects the room like a multi colored temporary structure. We wanted to create a constantly changing lamp that combines the most ephemeral of lampshades with an LED light source that will last for 50000 hours. In the time it takes the LED to burn out, the lamp will have had 3 million different globe shades.

Follow BOOO on all social media via -¬†booo.eu

Check out other projects by FRONT – HERE

More on Bagatti Museum -¬†museobagattivalsecchi.org

IMAGES courtesy of BOOO // Raw video from The SNAP Assembly

DESIGN :: Tom Dixon, Marcel Wanders & EMECO on Copied Designs

ams — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:06:09 +0000

The singular word that unifies the big name designers in this short video is ‘copying’ – yet Australia takes the soft line, attributing the word ‘replica’ to fake designer furniture.

Worse still, the retailers of designer knock-offs blatantly use the original designer’s name to market the stolen design….

Stealing design IP is theft. The copied product that not only robs the creator of a rightful royalty income, due reward for the (usually long process) to hone the final concept; but any copied design also stings the fabricator, who initially invested in research and development along with the tooling required to make the product, and also the marketing costs associated with delivering the concept to re-sellers, and ultimately, to the customer.

Watch this interesting short video made by design blog DEZEEN during the recent Milan Fair – where Tom Dixon, Moooi’s Marcel Wanders and Casper Vissers, & Emeco boss Gregg Buchbinder explain the only answer is to strive to make products that are more difficult to rip off.

The following is reposted from DEZEEN :

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in this movie filmed in Milan earlier this month, leading designers and manufacturers discuss the phenomenon of copying and how they are responding. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs become an increasingly big problem for us,‚Äù says Tom Dixon. ‚ÄúPeople can steal ideas and produce them almost faster than we can now.‚Äù

‚ÄúAn original design product will have a cost higher than its copy,‚Äù says designer Marcel Wanders. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs very simple. Stealing most of the time is more cheap than buying.‚Äù

Unscrupulous manufacturers visit Milan to photograph new prototypes and then rush out copies before the original products reach the market, according to Casper Vissers, CEO of furniture and lighting brand Moooi.

‚ÄúIt‚Äôs very sour if you have presented a product in April and it‚Äôs in the shops in September, but a bloody copier has it already in August,‚Äù says Vissers, speaking at Moooi’s spectacular Unexpected Welcome show in Milan. ‚ÄúThis is what happens at the moment.‚Äù

Vissers adds that legal action against copiers in Asia is expensive and, even if it‚Äôs successful in the short term, it does little to stem the tide: ‚ÄúYou need huge amounts of money [to launch a law suit in the Far East] and if you win – if – a new limited company in China will start production [of copies]‚Äù.

“Copiers are increasingly shameless about their intentions”, says Tom Dixon, speaking at his presentation at MOST in Milan. ‚ÄúPeople feel very confident copying things. Some people come around with spy glasses photographing things but other people are more overt and come in with iPads or film crews.‚Äù

Dixon says the problem is getting worse, with markets around the world and even the UK market increasingly flooded with copies. ‚ÄúEverywhere we go in Australia or Singapore or India we‚Äôll see many, many copies, and that‚Äôs also hitting more and more the UK as well.‚Äù

Gregg Buchbinder, CEO of furniture company Emeco, says the solution is for designers to push manufacturers to make more sophisticated products that are harder to copy. The furniture collection Emeco developed with designer Konstantin Grcic for the Parrish Art Museum on Long Island (below), for example, “was a very difficult project to do. Although the chair looks simple, there‚Äôs nothing skipped.”

‚ÄúThe more difficult it is, the more difficult it is for people to knock it off,‚Äù Buchbinder adds.

Emeco aggressively pursues copyists through the courts and earlier this year won a case
against fellow US manufacturer Restoration Hardware, which had copied the iconic Navy chair.

But outside Europe and the US, copyright law is less robust and harder to enforce. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs very, very difficult to protect yourself legally,‚Äù says Dixon.
Dixon‚Äôs company is directly responding to the problem of copying by developing a range of new products designed to make life more difficult for counterfeiters.

‚ÄúWhat you‚Äôll see [at our Milan presentation] is a number of coping strategies,‚Äù Dixon explains. ‚ÄúWe‚Äôve been trying as much as possible to invest in tooling and slightly more advanced technology. We‚Äôre working on adaptive models where we make specific things for clients. A new bespoke division where we make things for people, so we adapt our products to suit a client‚Äôs needs. So there‚Äôs ways of dealing with it. We‚Äôve just got to be faster and smarter.‚Äù

Read an earlier interview with Tom Dixon at the Global Design Forum in London last September – where he elaborates on the legalities of protecting design copyright – HERE.

READ AMS interview on the affect of buying fake designer furniture vs the genuine article, in the wake of US design juggernaught Herman Miller’s legal stoush with Australian knock-off furniture retailer Matt Blatt, on the¬†Interiors Addict ¬†BLOG- HERE.