Furniture that works

After reading the reviews of Mary Heilman's show at 303 Gallery I have been madly searching for an image of her chairs. I had this clipped from a notebook of mine, see the pink one on the left. At the gallery she put up her paintings along the wall and made a series of chairs on wheels that one could roll up to the painting. What a smart idea, how in control of her work and how people might enjoy it -she is.... So cool.

Idea Building

If I were very young I would apply for the summer to study at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center in Long Island New York. The brilliant experimental theater director takes apprentices to work on his current project. One of the most important parts of the apprenticeships is having contact with his vast collection of furniture and objects. Who am I kidding I wish I was Robert Wilson. See A Windsor chair, a Donald Judd and a Rievelt prototype.

Building eye candy

You may have to suffer through some light weight posts this week but I will turn it around soon. This image was spotted on ellmania's site via Elle Interior. The post was about pin up ideas but I am really interested in that ruler chair-any info out there?

Saturday thought

Its a rainy day in Mississippi and this image was a nice antidote. It goes beyond an idea about soft architecture and the potential power of drapery.....to all things that smell nice. Happy spring. via Poppytalk

Changing the building

As designers are known to do, we have riped out a bathroom, re-configured the laundry room and if all goes well Caleb and I will both get our own studios.....So to end the week I thought I would do a little homage to our first year in the house as it will be changing as the weekend moves along.....beautiful images by Rinne Allen

A Building hero

While I was researching for my Corbusier lecture I came across some of the furniture design that was actually designed by Corbusier's cousin Pierre Jeanneret-the unsung hero of Corbusier's career. This desk is really elegant and almost more Corb than Corb. Read the Gallerie Patrick Sequin bio of Jeanneret and you find out that when Corb goes to India to build the city Chandigarh it is Jeanneret who stays for years after to realize the epic modern city.

Facebook Furniture

This chair was designed by Piero Fornasetti in 1959. The chair is completed handmade and each prototype has new newspaper clippings lacquered onto the surface. The title of the chair is "The Latest News". Its a touching comment on the demise of print media today and one wonders what the Facebook equivalent is?

Building development

I dearly love the Jenette Chair from the Campana Brothers early work. While I was researching the materials that the chair is made from-I came across this image of a 1999 prototype which looks to have straw as the back of the chair. the current chair has rigid PVC from the broom structure back. The first piece seems more sympathetic to the break-out Favela chair (1991)

Building folds

I spotted the work of furniture designer Charles Kaisin in the beloved World of Interiors Magazine. An elegant accordion fold pouf in a renaissance palace...you know the pic. But during the research I found his web site which shows the first attempts in the accordion fold furniture out of recycled newspaper and packing paper. Really elegant is their earnest way.

Chair master

So you remember how I have been showing a series of work with artist using chairs in "chair-messes". Well I have found an artist that is truly a chair virtuoso..... Marc Andre Robinson's work has gone from your run of the mill chair mess genre guy to a skilled master of chair sculpture discipline. See this great
New York Times piece about his work.

building new form.....

Now if I were traveling in Greece, I would make my friend Costas take me to this young man's studio. Giannis Mamoutzis is leading the charge in the new modern ceramics. I saw his work at Yatzer and I will save for the trip to Greece and the trip to his studio- to take a piece home.

Building glaze....

The most beautiful modern pottery I have seen is the work of British artist Edmund de Waal. His web site is a feast of restraint and I see that there is a book that he has written about the great Bernard Leach and the tradition behind him. de Waal penned the book-Rethinking Bernard Leach: Studio Pottery and Contemporary Ceramics.

Building in Clay 2

The real mission for being on the coast was to go to Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs. A Mississippi Landmark the studio and showroom have been reconstructed after the storm and back better than ever. I had saved for two pieces in a beautiful butter color. The pieces are very affordable and are a hallmark of modernist pottery tradition. Call 228-875-7320 for very good directions.

Building Clay....

We had a wild and woolly trip down to the coast and got to meet many a fine person and saw some great design. First- from now on once you hit Biloxi you must visit the George Ohr museum. In mid- construction due to the hurricane damage the Frank Gehry Pods are a great architectural event. He finally got up to Richard Serra. Ohr's work can be viewed at a temporary location and then the fun begins....

Building posture

This collection solves a big problem in my marriage. This is a series of deftly designed yoga props that you don't have to hide when quest come over (no, I don't think the purple plastic rolled up mats are elegant...)
Designed byLucas Massen, you can find them at www.charlesandmarie.com.

Building Ideas

These are some very random images that are inspiring me while I am working in the Marie Antoinette's Sitting Room project-an image via remodelista from a Lisa Marie Whatmough project, a New York Times article about NYCB's winter season, and a Elisabeth VigeeLebrun's portrait of Marie Antoinette.

The First Happy couch

The great provocateur Marcel Wanders did this sofa for Moroso a few years back....wish he would put some of that prediction power on AIG? This PRINT sofa is an attempt to explore the three dimensional potential of graphics.

The Power of Print

And finally this company spotted via Remodelista....does a very British version of the crazy quilt vibe. Remodelista sweetly said that only a Brit could do this- I have to agree-it would have a totally different reading here in Mississippi. See Squint Limited for more.

The New Happy-

This is the same and different to the Bokji sofa previously posted. This sofa by Cristian Zuzunga is the techno equivalent. Zuzunga is a graphic designer first and he brings the trade talk of pixels and color charts to your couch potato berth....... This was found vis coolhunter.

Shiny happy sofas....

I think that there is a serious want for super optimistic home decor. This is a sofa I spotted in Architectural Record Mag (?) See the Alsabah Collections for these sofas from Maria Hibri and Huda Baroudi. The chic sofa frames are covered in traditional Turkish textiles-this is a totally hand-made process. Beautiful, Happy result.

Building Touch

I am very excited about this work of Erin Hayne and Nuno Goncalves Ferreira- studio NunoErin in Jackson Mississippi. When I moved to Mississippi I felt that I was throwing my net wider in the world rather than pulling in; so when I came across this work I knew Mississippi was an expansive place. Erin and Nuno run a studio that is currently involved in designing this thermosensitive furniture and wall panels. The story behind the inky, mysterious aesthetic is that wanting to show Nuno the equivalent of soaring cathedrals and monuments in Mississippi-Erin took him to the cypress swamps. A place where the phenomenal overrides the logical.....

Chair-mess

You must indulge in one more images of a chair collision. This "chair-mess" is an image from emma's blog and massproduction installation at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. Is this a hidden frustration with chair thing or a celebrate multiple chairs thing??????

Flying Furniture

My friend Mr. Pommer sent me this image of Ai Weiwei's piece Grapes. This is part of his series where he takes Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture and re-configures them in "un-real" conditions. This work will be on display at Phillips Depury in London this month, the exhibition is called Four Movements. Now I want to go to London.

Chair towers

I have not posted a single Dutchman's work for two weeks and was feeling really good about my diet when my buddy at Yatzer brought up the opening of a Droog design store in NYC. It opened in February and evidently has all the classics as well as up and coming designers. Okay, now I need a trip to New York.....

Building Vessels

I got an e-mail from Elodie Blanchard announcing her new web site for Elastico. I have shown Elodie work before and remain transfixed by her versatility and imagination. She has some terrific projects in her online store and boy do I love these vases made of rubber bands coated in rubber...talk about "use what you have" design.

Building Clean

I am super busy with school stuff but I thought I would share some photos Caleb got of a brownstone we completed last summer. We call this out "easy going project", ideas came easily, the clients were lovely and there is a clarity in the work that represents the clarity of the relationship. Thanks Steve and Rachel this was a great project to work on. And of course Lubna Chowdhary's tiles are the star once again!

Working on the Building

Sharon Mc Hugh from World Architecture News wrote a great little article announcing the proposed completion of 272 21Street in Brooklyn. Caleb had a great interview with her and she "got it".

Building Space.

I am taking a blogger break. Mid term grades, faculty reviews, etc.
But I will leave you with this Yellow Chairs in Brooklyn photo by Caleb. Check again this weekend.

Building the modern world

I am finishing an all Abe Lincoln February. I am loving Adam Gopnik's book Angels and Ages about Lincoln and his birthday twin Charles Darwin....Really amazing ideas about the modern world, the impact of war, how parenting frames your world view and how we got into this mess.... Also on The All Abe all the Time is this wonderful visual essay by Maira Kalman in the New York Times

Building Images

Caleb' s valentine's present from me came yesterday in the post. The new Candida Hofer book untitled Libraries. It is stunning. A collection of images from Otis Parsons in LA to epic institutions in Prague. Really worth every cent. This is a book that could get you through the recession....