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IcerocketChannels: European Design
Listen to R. Craig Miller, Senior Curator of Design Arts and Director of Design Initiatives Arts at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Penny Spark, design scholar of Kingston University in the U.K., as they discuss objects from the upcoming exhibition, European Design since 1985, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In this discussion, we see a contrast between the Hot Bertaa Kettle and Max le Chinois Colander, both by Phillippe Starck.
We are in need of a Bloody Mary and some jelly doughnuts...
So this filming will go fast... [We keep our fridge stocked!]
We are looking at two wonderful objects by Philippe Starck.... [We are.] who has had such an enormous impact on these two decades in Europe.
Yes, he is the first superstar of the, kind of, late 80s and beyond and, as you said, we have got here some of the most iconic pieces, really.
I mean, I think it is also interesting, too, the whole relationship with Alessi, and when you think in that period in the 80s where you have Alessi in Sao Paolo, having really began to change the whole tablewear feel,
if you want to call it that, by bringing in all of these designers and really creating objects that become, you know, sort of, design icons.
Yes, I think without those manufacturers committing themselves you wouldn’t have pieces like these, you'd have one-off art pieces, but you wouldn’t have these production pieces in the same way.
Yeah, so.... but, I think what’s pretty interesting with Starck, too, is, you know, this is supposedly a tea kettle, but, you know, how do you actually use it? You know, putting water in here, holding it, pouring it out.
But also, you know, he begins to use these forms that he keeps repeating in lights or buildings and in various scales.
I think that’s right, and I think what you're getting with Starck, as you are with several of these people moving beyond modernism, is a combination of a functional object, which works in the sense that it has all the right bits,
but it’s much, much more than that. It's symbolic and it's his mark as a kind of superstar designer, creating an icon that becomes synonymous with him, really.
Yeah.. and what he also... he later used this as a light for FLOS, which we also have in the show.
Indeed... it becomes a building in Tokyo, it becomes a whole set of other, kind of, objects, it becomes his marker.
Yeah, so, I think, the Bertaa is really a wonderful form and to have it in the two colors is also quite fantastic. And then, the colander, which is, you know, it’s very wonderful with the liner in it,
and yet, the character of it changes so much when the light goes through it and you start seeing, almost, the little hits here, and the graduated dots, and all.
Yes, this is another great example of a simple object, really. I mean, he doesn’t need to do much other than let water fall through it, so it does that, but it does so much more as well.
It sits there on your kitchen surface as a piece of sculpture.
And, it could also be a centerpiece, when you have already put the plastic...
[Absolutely!]
back in it and changes the design so dramatically....
It becomes different object there again, doesn’t it? Very much so, and strikingly beautiful, yeah...
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