I just finished the 1999 Anthony Dunne’s 1999 Hertzian Tales, with his “aesthetics of functionality” which allows critical, imaginative discussion around the values embodied in objects. If designers are “providers of new behavioral opportunities,” these critical objects of use certainly do “challenge the monopoly of established reality.” (marcuse)
mask show james cohen
The MASK show approaches a functional typology in the gallery context, leaving room for speculation about the entire production of a “museum” show, with it’s labels (this time referencing context rather than material). The oldest working smoke mask next to a matthew barney pushes the line between pragmatic utility and tools for mood in a surrealist narrative.
Tanya Bonakdar’s obsession with designed objects and complex visual language produced a group show called Office, but I was more impressed by the individual artists’ catalogs than the mash up of their works sitting side by side. Mark Manders, for example, is my new favorite! His visual language is so nuanced (and luckily he can articulate it with spoken language as well) that he created his own newspaper for his papeir mache objects. He says about one piece:
“I purposely arranged the rugged still life in a typically …