Nendo Exhibition: Glassworks at Dilmos Gallery in Milan

 Designer Oki Sato of Japanese studio Nendo talks about his new Deep Sea cabinets presented at Dilmos gallery during Milan Design Week

Milanese design gallery Dilmos held an exhibition of glass by award-winning Japanese studio Nendo during the Salone del Mobile, Jeanne-Marie Cilento writes. Additional reporting by Nicolas James. Photographs by Solange Souza, Joakim Blockstrom & Ambrosio De Lauro.

CALLED Glassworks, Nendo’s chief designer Oki Sato wanted to create a show about rethinking traditional uses for glass. Dilmos’ all-white gallery located in Pizza San Marco provided a minimalist background to Nendo’s spare exhibition. 

Sato first opened an office in Milan in 2005 after founding Nendo in 2002 in Tokyo. The multi-disciplinary practice includes architecture, furniture, interiors plus industrial and graphic design. Last year, Nendo was chosen as Designer of the Year by Wallpaper Magazine and received the Elle Decoration International Design Award.

Sato showed the process of making and decorating Baccarat glass and how Coca-Cola bottles can be reused to create other glass products at the Dilmos show. He also designed the new Patchwork vases for Lasvit as a collection in Bohemian glass. It combines the cut glass techniques particular to Bohemian glass with the production methods for creating sheet glass. "We reheated a variety of objects already decorated with traditional cut glass patterns, then sliced them open and re-attached them to each other to create one large object,’’ Sato explains.  “As a way of making, the process was like sewing together animal hides, or piecing together small fragments of cloth to create a great patchwork quilt."

The most alluring if hard-edged pieces in the exhibition were the Deep Sea tables using different gradients of blue glass. Designed for Glas Italia, the collection is composed of a low table and shelving. "It's possible to colour glass by melting a layer of transparent coloured film onto the surface,’’ says Sato. “We decided to deepen the shade of each successive glass sheet by slightly changing the combination and number of layers for each one. The viewer is drawn into the depths of transparency and colour, as though gazing at the surface of the sea. We also progressively narrowed the space between the shelves and combined them with a mirror to further emphasise the colour gradations. The result was furniture with depth and transparency from any angle."

A less successful project for Glas Italia are Nendo’s Mirror chair and Mirror stool console made of tempered and silvered glass 10 mm thick. Evanescent in shape and colour ~ the piece is not particularly functional and the design doesn’t appear fully resolved. A contemporary interpretation of a dressing table, it has a cartoony two dimensional look combining a mirror and a chair in one piece of furniture with frosted gradations showing the unlikely fusion of the two elements. The chair could be used as a ledge for objects as well as an (uncomfortable) seat. The piece comes in two designs: a large mirror and chair and a small mirror with a high stool.

Nendo’s collection called Bottleware for Coca Cola is made up of recycled glass bowls and dishes. Coke’s contoured bottle has been symbolic of the company since 1916 and Nendo’s tableware collection is made from bottles that have deteriorated over the course of recycling and can no longer be re-used for their original purpose. "We were captivated by the particular green tint known as “Georgia Green” and by the fine air bubbles and distortions that are a hallmark of recycled glass," says Sato. “So we decided to create simple shapes that would enhance these traits. But we also wanted users to feel a remnant of the distinctive bottle in the new products.

“Our solution was to create bowls and dishes that retain its distinctive shape, as though the top had been sliced off. The dimpling on the bottle base is not ordinarily a strong visual feature, but it's a particular characteristic of glass bottles and visible to anyone who picks up the bottle to drink. Keeping these ring-shaped dimples on the base of our bowls and plates also helps to convey important messages about the way that glass circulates between people as it's made, used and recycled for further use."

Nendo’s project for Baccarat called Harcourt Ice is a collection of crystal glasses for the French luxury brand which has been making crystal since 1764.  "For our redesign of the company's signature Harcourt line, we wanted to highlight a new facet of the beauty of glass by creating an edge like beautifully frozen ice, then 'melting' it,” Sato explains. “The company's skilled craftsmen smoothed the edges by melting the surface of the finished Harcourt glasses by dipping them into the acid ordinarily used in the final stages of the polishing process. The soft feel and distinctive light refraction of the melted edges closely resemble those of ice that has begun to melt. The image of hard ice gradually dissolving into free-flowing water, as though capturing one moment in time, represents the company's graceful movement between tradition and innovation."

Nendo also created a storage unit with doors made of transparent disk-shaped glass sheets. Called the Rotating Glass Shelf, the shelves are made of birch with disks in blown glass. “Our design derives from the historical practice of cutting sheet glass from glass discs,’’ Sato says. “We thought that the faint swells and depressions that result from the artisanal handmade practise would gently warp the things placed on the shelves behind the glass. The holes in the centre become finger-sized handles to roll the discs left and right."

Lastly, Nendo created a mosaic glass table for Italian company Bisazza. The table has a metal structure with a glass top made from mosaic tiles. "We applied transparent mosaic tiles to the tabletop,'' Oki Sato says. "While colourfulness is ordinarily the defining feature of mosaic tiles, by removing this distinctive characteristic we brought out their texture, re-emphasising their materiality as glass."

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

The Deep Sea low tables with gradations of blue designed by Nendo for Glas Italia. "It's possible to colour glass by melting a layer of transparent coloured film onto the surface,’’ says Sato. “We decided to deepen the shade of each successive glass sheet by slightly changing the combination and number of layers for each one. The viewer is drawn into the depths of transparency and colour, as though gazing at the surface of the sea."

The Glas Italia tables and shelves in varying shades photographed at the opening of the Nendo show during Milan's Salone del Mobile

 Journalists and designers gather to look at the new designs for the Patchwork Glass collection created by Oki Sato for Lasvit

Drawings showing the various traditional patterns of Bohemian glass that Nendo transformed for Lasvit

The Bohemian glass bowls on display showing Nendo's process of creating the new Patchwork vases collection

A close-up showing the different patterns of Bohemian glass used for the new Patchwork vases."We reheated a variety of objects already decorated with traditional cut glass patterns, then sliced them open and re-attached them to each other to create one large object,’’ Sato explains.  “As a way of making, the process was like sewing together animal hides, or piecing together small fragments of cloth to create a great patchwork quilt."

Nendo's new Rotating Glass Shelf made of birch and disks of coloured glass that form transparent round "doors" with the central holes as handles. “Our design derives from the historical practice of cutting sheet glass from glass discs,’’ Sato says. “We thought that the faint swells and depressions that result from the artisanal handmade practice would gently warp the things placed on the shelves behind the glass."

Designer Oki Sato contemplates the Mirror Console and Seat designed for Glas Italia

 The Mirror Console and Seat made in tempered glass that has a cartoony two dimensional look 

The new pieces for Baccarat by Nendo that reinterprets their classic glasses for the Harcourt Ice collection

 The new wine glass with the "melting ice" effect Oki Sato wanted to create for Baccarat. "For our redesign of the company's signature Harcourt line, we wanted to highlight a new facet of the beauty of glass by creating an edge like beautifully frozen ice, then 'melting' it,” Sato explains. 

Nendo designed this table for Italian company Bisazza made of glass mosaic tiles on a metal structure

"We applied transparent mosaic tiles to the glass tabletop and while colourfulness is ordinarily the defining feature of mosaic tiles by removing this distinctive characteristic we brought out their texture, emphasising their materiality as glass," explains Oki Sato.

The new Bottleware collection designed for Coca Cola. "We were captivated by the particular green tint known as “Georgia Green” and by the fine air bubbles and distortions that are a hallmark of recycled glass," says Sato. “So we decided to create simple shapes that would enhance these traits."

"Our solution was to create bowls and dishes that retain its distinctive shape, as though the top had been sliced off," Sato says of the Bottleware collection for Coca Cola. "The dimpling on the bottle base is not ordinarily a strong visual feature, but it's a particular characteristic of glass bottles and visible to anyone who picks up the bottle to drink."

Studio Job Show at Milan's Museum of Science and Technology

The atmospheric Sala del Cenacolo where Studio Job exhibited their new designs for Lensvelt during the Salone del Mobile

One of the most surreal exhibitions at this year’s Milan Design Week was the My Nose, My Stekkerdoos show created by Belgian designers Studio Job, writes Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Additional reporting by Nicolas James. Photographs by Roos Aldershoff

HELD in the spectacular Sala del Cenacolo at the Museum of Science and Technology, designers Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagelare exhibited a collection of new home and office furniture for Dutch company Lensvelt.  The show was presented in a monastic refectory surrounded by 18th-century frescoes and stucco work as part of this year's MOST exhibition.

Studio Job like to play with scale and have a humorous bent that is reflected in their designs. This year a golden nose appeared on pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein as a lead up to the studio’s show in Milan.

The large nose turns out to be a handle for a slim, minimalist desk that looks simple and elegant but completely utilitarian. The oversized key used for the equally Modernist cabinet is the only decoration to break the clean, linear lines of the functional piece.

"Hans Lensvelt is an ingenious product developer who transforms our unconventional designs into functional products yet maintains a sense of wit," explains Job Smeets. "Our collaboration is about the importance of functionality and creating high-quality objects with their own identity and humour."

The new collection is a continuation from the Job Cabinet they presented at the Salone del Mobile two years ago. In 2012 the Job Cabinet won the Wallpaper Design Award and the Elle Decoration International Design Award.

The new Job Desk Lamp created for this year's show was lined up in rows like a Roman battalion in the Sala del Cenacolo. Although it appears to be a standard desk light in powder-coated metal it has a giant gold switch at its base.

Another piece in the Job Office collection for Lensvelt is the Job Buffet, a white powder-coated metal cabinet with two doors and a chrome-plated aluminium key that locks it. Each piece in the collection is available in a range of colours from white, green, grey and black to red, yellow and blue.

Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagelare are masters of creating Alice in Wonderland like pieces that appear to be simple and functional furniture but are given a twist by their scale and ironic detail.


For more information about Studio Job's upcoming exhibitions: http://www.studiojob.be

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

The large golden noses used as handles on Studio Job's new desk for Dutch company Lensvelt 

The Job Desk in powder-coated metal with a gold nose you pull to open the long draw

Studio Job's campaign leading up to their show in Milan included showing images of historic figures wearing gold noses

The over sized gold key locking the Job Buffet cabinet (above) for Lensvelt

One of images used by Studio Job with Marilyn Monroe wearing the nose handle used on the Job Desk

The Job Desk Lamp in powder-coated metal with an over sized gold switch

10 Question Column: French Street Artist C215

Christian Guémy photographed by Andreas Romagnoli for DAM in front of one his works inspired by Caravaggio at his new exhibition in Rome. The face in the painting is a self-portrait.

Renowned French Street Artist C215, real name Christian Guémy, answers Jeanne-Marie Cilento’s ten questions about his extraordinary life and evocative work, the latest exhibition at Wunderkammern gallery in Rome and the new book C215 by Sabina de Gregori. Portraits by Andreas Romagnoli

 

Artist Christian Guemy photographed in Rome

CHRISTIAN Guémy is one of the most poetic and successful artists in the world of international street art. His evocative portraits of the lost, the dispossessed and the joyous stare out from walls of cities from Paris to New Delhi and London to Istanbul. And his work has come in from the cold as purely "outsider" art and now hangs in major art galleries in far-flung countries including France, the United States, Spain, Brazil and Russia.The artist finds it a strange anomaly that while he is still arrested by police for creating street art, his work is at the same time sought after by galleries and collectors. But he says his aim with his public artworks is always to choose spaces and walls where his creations add drama and interest to the urban contexts ~ not deface them.

"I use no computer, and cut stencils everyday, in the way other people draw. My process is really basic"

One of Guemy's stencilled street
portraits: Staring (2013)

Guémy himself is no street urchin but a highly-educated artist well aware of his role within the wider art world. He earned a degree in architecture history and theory after having first studied economics, and then went on to receive a PhD in Art History. Beginning his artistic career in 2005, Guémy developed his own style mainly using stencils. While he started in black and white, his current work uses brilliant colour. Guémy likes to depict people on the social fringes in inner urban contexts: both the homeless and disenfranchised and the young and free. He is inspired by Caravaggio's voluptuous expressivity and interested in depicting people's raw emotions. Guémy's exhibition in Rome examines guilt, the necessity of reflecting on the historical past and taking responsibility for our actions.

Lightbox work called Untitled VI (2013)

1. What inspired the themes of your new exhibition Mea Culpa in Rome? I based my show on Catholic iconography looked at through the work of Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi ~ homeless people that I turned into modern icons and cats related to Rome but also to superstition.

 

There is also a section about power and megalomania, with a few comments on dictatorship linked to guilt and religion. When preparing the show six months ago, I had no idea the pope would resign a few days before the opening of my show in Rome. Being an artist involves making decisions every day. Some decisions effect your career, some artworks make a big impact on you.
 

2. What role do portraits of people play in your art work?

I get commissions, even if I don't consider myself only as a portraitist, but rather a contemporary artist working on identity. My portraits, when placed in the streets, aim at catching attention and raising emotion. I hope the viewer questions himself to ask "who is that person?". Anonymous faces leave the possibility for identification.

3. How did the moniker “C215” become your famous signature? This moniker came by accident, and despite giving many different explanations for it, it has no real meaning. I used it the first time as a poet, for my first poetry book. I wanted a modern nickname, abstract and industrial, corresponding to our period.
 

"I consider studio work and the streets as very different. The street art being more spontaneous, while studio works need more time"

Spraypaint work Frutta (2013)

 

4. How has Caravaggio influenced your work and do you see parallels in his life and work to your own? He's a real master of chiaroscuro and I've been compared to him in that way.

We both turned anonymous and marginal people into icons, and he was a wanderer as I am, leaving artworks behind him as I do. Maybe we are crazy, but as a real painting genius, I wonder how skilled Caravaggio would have been with a spray can.

 

5. Do you do sketches first or directly paint outdoors for your street art? I use no computer, and cut stencils everyday, in the way other people draw. My process is really basic.

 

6. When you began your artistic path in 2005 you began with stencils and working in black and white and now you use a lot of vivid colour. What inspires you for your recent works? I like to evolve and make my work more and more complex. Maybe I have an easier life now, and less concerns, so it became natural to use more colours year after year, in the same way my subjects became less heavy. Colour, as well as the subject, always have to be contextual, and what I do is mainly self-expression.

 

One of C215's famous stencils
of thoughtful cats

7. Is there a street art community here in Rome and will you collaborate again with NUfactory?The street art community in Rome is quite new, so it will take time to speak about a proper scene. Sten and Lex are I think the main representatives of the movement in Rome: they do original art and began a long time ago. I am happy they get the full credit for the birth of street art in Roma.When I painted here for the first time in 2008 they were the only street artists we could find in the city. It was beautiful to find such an ancient and artistic city ~ almost virgin of any street art. Street art became more fashionable and then more people did it, especially after 2010. I worked for the first time with NUfactory in 2010 for the poster festival Outdoor in Garbatella. Collaborating again with them on a wall in Rome was really easy.

"Colour, as well as the subject, always have to be contextual, and what I do is mainly self-expression"

 

 

8. How did Sabina de Gregori’s new book C215 come to fruition?This book came as a conclusion to the five years I spent back and forth to paint in Italy, especially in Rome and Milan.                 

9. Do you think you will continue as a street artist or create more works in a studio? I am getting older, but I will continue to paint in the streets as long as my legs allow me to do it. I consider studio work and the streets as very different. The street art being more spontaneous, while studio works need more time. Basically both sides are equally important, the first part being ephemeral while studio works are made to last "forever". What is important is to do quality artworks, in the studio or outside.

10. Are you happy your daughter Nina is interested in creating Street Art too? My daughter is ten years old, but she is already able to cut a stencil and paint. But it's hard to say she is an artist now: she can become whatever she wants. I decided to paint portraits in the streets for her and I wanted to paint her portrait next to her house and school when her mother and myself got separated. I guess she's rather proud and conscious of what I do now. 

Click on pictures for full-screen slideshow of Christian Guemy's work:

 Untitled VI 2013 Lightbox, neon, wood, glass, stained glass, lead strips and spray paint 59.5x68.5cm

Christian Guémy working on a stencil at the Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome

 Untitled III 2013 Lightbox, neon, wood, stained glass, lead and spray paint 59.5x68.5cm 

The artist reading from the new book C215 by Sabina di Gregori 

Untitled IV 2013 Lightbox neon, wood, stained glass, traditional lead strips, spray paint 68.5x59.5cm

Untitled VII 2013  Lightbox, neon, wood, stained glass, traditional lead strips and spray paint 59.5x68.5cm 

Untitled VIII 2103 Lightbox neon, wood, stained glass, traditional lead strips and spray paint 59.5x68.5cm

Untitled 2013 Lightbox, neon, wood, stained glass, lead and spray paint 68.5 x 59.5cm

 C215 sits next to his work inspired by Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes

Davide 2013  Spray paint on wood 68x96cm

Frutta 2013 Spray paint on original Italian mail box 52x8 x27cm

C215's show Mea Culpa in Rome

Touch Faith 2013 Spray paint on metal can (framed) 25.4x30.5x8.5 

The opening night of C215's exhibition in Rome

Gatto II 2013 spray paint on an original Italian mail box 48x64x27cm 

Gatto III 2013 Spray paint on plastic sheet (framed) 39.3x34.2cm

C215 created this work on a wall in Rome on the night before his show opened in Via Gabbrio Serbelloni at the Wunderkammern Gallery

C215's works exhibited at his new show in Rome

Staring 2013 Spray paint on wood 75.2x166.5cm

Bacchus 2013 Spray paint on metal 59.5x100cm

Favelo 2013 Spray paint on wooden door 106 x100cm