This article is part of our Design Specials section on how looks, materials and even creators evolve.
reflective rug
For German-born designer Jan Kath, who now lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand, rugs are more than just decorations. They also reflect world politics. “Rug Bombs,” an exhibition of 11 handwoven works of his, held at the church in Kassel, Germany, Alte Blüderkirche, is a troubled country craftsman who weaves images of violence and war into textiles. We follow modern traditions.
“They are very personal,” he said.
The works in Rag Bomb, which runs in conjunction with the documenta art exhibition through September 25, range from slow-sized to 10-by-14-foot pieces that can dominate an entire room.
Rendered in a pop art-inspired style, their scenes include jet fighters, guns, tanks, and refugees. In one photo, a Syrian family disembarks from a boat on a Greek island as a military helicopter circles overhead against a starry night sky. Another scene, adapted from his 2006 book Armed America: Portraits of Domestic Gun Owners by Kyle Cassidy, shows a man sitting in his living room with his family, proudly holding an automatic rifle. Showing off.
Cass runs each design digitally before transforming it into hand-spun wool and silk colored with natural dyes. The hand-knotting technique he uses comes from ancient Persia. Each rug, he said, would take him three to five months to compete.
A new archive celebrating everyday design
Graphic designers create the look and feel of communications, from books to billboards to gum wrappers. But the lifespan of these designs, whether printed or digitized, is so short that there are not enough archivists in the world to sort through such a pile of artifacts with an eye to preservation. not inside
Leaflets, typefaces and ticket stubs come to the rescue in the People’s Graphic Design Archive, a crowdsourced database recently launched after eight years of development. Our digital archive, which currently contains about 5,000 items, allows anyone anywhere in the world to upload and store temporary fragments.
Inspired by “The History of the American People”,” Howard Zinn’s 1980 book broadened the definition of events considered worth documenting, and the archive contains multiple perspectives. Louise Sandhaus, who leads the project with Brockett-Horn, Briar-Levitt, and Morgan Searcy, says, “To tell the larger history of a culture expressed through graphic design, you have to explain everything that that culture has produced. This means ensuring the survival of designs like the packaging of Korean crayons and the Colombian 200 peso coin, which design historians praise as “canonized and fetishized.” It’s not just a few items,” Sandhouse said.
Participants are asked to upload materials that are at least 10 years old. Submissions may include completed projects and sketches, photographs, correspondence, oral histories, and other sources of information that illuminate the designs.
A centuries-old library gets an upgrade
When the centuries-old Richelieu Library in the second arrondissement of Paris reopens this month after a decade-long renovation, visitors to its ornate oval room will find a more refined selection of chairs than before. You may notice that it has been replaced with a new seat.
Designed by Patrick Jouin, prototyped by the French National Association for Furniture Heritage Ateliers de Lecherche et Creations du Mobilier and manufactured by Archi, a French Basque company, the Oria chair is made of oak. , black leather seat and backrest. It is the first chair commissioned specifically for the Oval Room.
Before drafting the design, Jouin visited Richelieu to see a mix of different seating in different rooms, including rows of high-backed wicker chairs.
“They had chairs that didn’t belong in the space,” he said over the phone. , doesn’t work in this library, so I wanted to design a chair that’s a bit more serious as a study area, and I wanted it to be discreet.”
The stark Oria has a mid-century modern feel, but Juan said he was more impressed by the wooden table in the room. “If anything I am influenced by, I would say it is most influenced by the Shaker style. This idea of beauty with simple and pure function.”
Chairs also fit the library space in another way. The name Olya is the Basque word for the pages of the book.
A new theater in Massachusetts offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse
Imagine walking into a theater lobby and peering into a dressing room. His $107 million building, completed last month, welcomes students for the fall semester. (Please be assured that the performers can close the curtains for privacy protection.)
A space called “The Beehive” is no ordinary theater lobby. This is a grand central atrium with a performing arts as well as a café that serves as a hub for the larger Holy Cross campus. The glass walls of the atrium give visitors a glimpse into the inner workings of the school, from classrooms to galleries to event spaces.
Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the Prior Performing Arts Center is organized in a cruciform (not denoting a university or its Catholic affiliation) and has four wings flanking the Beehive. 200-seat flexible black box theater; Building of practice space and production space. The Cantor Art Gallery wing houses a media lab for augmented reality, virtual reality and electronic music composition.
According to Charles Renfro, lead architect of the project, the goal was to adapt the building for spontaneous creative uses. “Many educational spaces are very prescribed,” he said. “We wanted to provide a welcoming and flexible space that students would want to own.”
Reminiscent of the red brick and limestone of Holy Cross’ 19th-century Collegiate Gothic architecture, the center is clad in corten steel and glass-fiber reinforced concrete. The building replaces part of the parking lot and serves as a pedestrian hub on campus. Students enter the arts center through a corner of the building, which is planted with a variety of landscapes, including a small amphitheater and a meditation garden.