Tokyo Fiber ‘09 Senseware at La Triennale di Milano

Tokyo Fiber ‘09 Senseware

Kenya Hara; Exhibition Director introduces Tokyo Fiber´09 SENSEWARE that took part of LA Triennale di Milano from April 22nd to April 27th.

"Japan´s artificial fibers are a new SENSEWARE." Comparing Stone Age tools as a trigger for human creativity so does diferent media can trigger it further; technology, materials, structural or chemical innovations.

Hara asks one to "imagine how the new artificial fibers that have evolved through the aplication of high technology will spur humans to a new wave of creation. Some fibers are as fine as individual cells, some are more pliant than rubber and some are electrically conductive... " Tokyo Fiber exhibits the outcome of the creative process involving this new fibers, it includes, architects, designers, artists and creative people with a creative input willing to innovate in the fibers domain and bring forward new possibilities

"The exhibition representes an intersection of technology, materials and talent, all oriented towards the future manufacturing."

One of the intents is to stimulate the senses, but Hara mentions than more than the senses an excitement for the future will be sensed. ??? The future can be felt according to Hara.

The materials and technology have a rather cold look about them, it will take a closer look to find out how the senses are stimulated.

http://tokyofiber.com/en/

Drawing and stitching. The Idea of the North at 210 Gallery an artist run gallery in Brooklyn NY

The idea of the north works by Cyrilla Montzer and her statement about her work.
Pencil on industrial wool felt hand sewn with silk thread.

Work with Felt 2006-'08

Would I had seen a white bear! (for how can I imagine it?)

I have been pondering this absurd statement from Gertrude Stein’s The Life and Opinions
of Tristram Shandy. In confronting the ridiculous, I am motivated to make work.

It is also true that a small wooden polar bear has found its way to my worktable in the last
year. It had belonged to my Aunt Fritzi, who got it in Alaska. Polar bears are solitary
creatures. They traverse continents, working their way to becoming extinct.

The first three-dimensional body of work I made with cream-colored industrial wool felt
was titled Polar Bear Glove Song. The felt is close to the color of polar bear fur and
reminds me of snow, a bear’s natural habitat. Both insulate and make quiet.

Like Polar Bear Glove Song and the freestanding More saints seen, the new felt pieces in

the warm snow series are stitched together by hand with lustrous pale grey silk thread.
And like the earlier work, the new three-dimensional pieces are self-supporting; there are
no armatures or additional supporting materials. The new pieces, however, are larger,
increasingly rectilinear, and closer to the ground. As a group they form a 'settlement' of
building blocks, each a necessary aspect of a collective whole. The new series has also
begun to include flag and banner-like wall pieces in which shapes are cut out and then
inlaid (and stitched) into position not unlike marquetry. They are a means to mark the
territory.

Felt is a non-woven textile made from the compression of a tangle of animal fur and
behaves in unpredictable ways. To sew it into geometric forms or to stitch shapes within
eachother is to go against its natural inclination to buckle, stretch, droop, and torque
(which brings in an element of chance). I am attempting to push felt to do what it doesn’t
want to do while maintaining its integrity as a material.


www.cyrillamozenter.com

woolfelt by p_inc

Really cool bags made out of industrial felt and hand stitched.


www.woolfeltbypinc.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PHOLALAB
http://goodsie.com/store/5409

HUT up BERLIN

Felting in one of a kind beautiful objects, all handcrafted in the traditional way from pure wool. From home and office accessories, to baby clothes, hats, scarves, adult clothing and decorative items. The designs are simply clean and have a warmth in them that enhances the tactile quality of the material, usually in solid colors but with witty elements; some funny, cute or unexpected thread that will pull a smile of you.

All handmade things that easily challenge the modern without being cold designs.

Hut up is showen as part of the Hewitt Copper Museum exhibition on Felt currently open.

www.hutup.de

Hella Jongerious / Maharam / Nike

Maharam’s unique interpretation of the AF1 introduces a silhouette constructed of Layers, a textile created by the Maharam Design Studio in collaboration with Dutch industrial designer Hella Jongerius. Layers, produced in single and double layered variations in 100% wool felt, uses sophisticated full-width embroidery equipment played against artisanal hand-cutting to create patterning, resulting in an “industrial
craft” hybrid. This already complex textile was further engineered to meet the specific needs of the AF1. The result represents a multi-disciplinary undertaking, bridging disparate aspects of industrial design including sports technology, textile design and the conceptual avant-garde.

Arounna Khounnoraj

bookhou was co-founded by John Booth and Arounna Khounnoraj in 2003 to showcase their individual and collaborative works emphasizing handmade natural materials and small production pieces.

She is dividing her time between her textile designs and her artwork where she explores sculpture, drawing and printmaking. Both her artwork and textile designs explore pattern and image.

Erwan & Ronan Boureoullec - on Kreo exhibition by Laurence Salmon

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Kreo Exhibition 2008 For Ronan et Erwan Bouroullec, working with galleries is a chance to breathe outside the usual constraints that characterise their enthusiastic contribution to industrial design.

Their need to go “over the top” shows their almost childlike joy in escaping the ties that bind them when working on a brief. The unique proportions of these new pieces are free from existing typologies and domestic conventions. They free themselves from defined and definitive shapes.

The Bouroullec brothers travel between the known and the unknown, moving in an « in-between » space that still leaves plenty of room for practical use.

The disturbing, long black lamp, invents a pivoting principle that leans on the ceiling. It moves like a living organism, like a three-headed hydra. The exaggerated diameter evokes the imposing size of Venetian chandeliers.

The moulded polyester tables, with their synthetic appearance, are huge monolithic shapes that are barely off the ground. Their white and unreal aspect makes them seem like floating ice floes.

The sofa – can we still refer to it as such ? – is a black box, one of the elementary shapes that Ronan et Erwan Bouroullec love so much. The intriguing shape (3m x 2m) makes us wonder about the true nature of the object. Is it a piece of furniture or an alcove? The pile of covers clears any doubts about its function: it is a place of comfort, a shelter for rest and retreat, a sort of spatial parenthesis.

Just as impressive in terms of dimension (4m wide, 2.20m high), the screen is more of a « fabric wall » than a mobile separation. One is seduced by these patches of wool in abstract, geometric, stitched shapes in clashing colours. The design of the aluminium chassis on which these huge wool covers are “placed” reminds us of a saddle maker’s workshop with skins hanging on metal trestles.

These four objects do not constitute a collection by any means as they were all designed at different times. However, they do represent the constant research of the Bouroullec brothers into the notion of the “quality of the atmosphere”. The use of fabric is one answer. In this case, it is a vehicle for colour, and the huge, flat, monochrome surfaces bring to mind abstract paintings.

After having explored a more pointillist and vibrant touch with the fabric tile Kvadrat, the two designers are today experimenting with the strict and lyrical rhythm of collections and fitted shapes, associated with layers of colour. Ettore Sottsass said “Colour is life”. Ronan Bouroullec ironically says that “colour is as complicated as life”. In any case, the two brothers refuse to invent any kind of theory on the subject.

They tame colour with method, letting themselves be guided by their intuition. This is a delight and an open door every time as their aesthetic visibly gathers strength.

Text by Laurence Salmon, January 2008.

http://www.bouroullec.com