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Reflection

During this workshop we looked at artists and designers who are inspired by mundane objects to develop new forms. By examining form, function, materials and process of everyday items a greater scope of qualities can be identified, which can then be used as inspiration to re-invent the ordinary.

Through the process of finding our own object and identifying the qualities in it, it was interesting how many aspects of an object there is to consider, particularly when you take into account it’s origins and development.

Looking at the life and achievements of Gijs Bakker, highlights how Bakker transformed mundane jewelry into cutting edge art by embedding his work with a concept. He offers an insightful process to redesigning the mundane; having a concept as the essence of a piece and allowing form and function to mold around it, to best embody the idea.

The objects we researched highlight the often-interesting result of combining two different ideas. The Inflatable Armchair by D’Urbino and Lomazzi and the Attese by Studio Makkink & Bey, are examples of the combination of two seemingly disparate and mundane products that have been combined to create something new. Furthermore Sketch Chair by design group Font, illustrates that new technologies can be the leading idea behind a new design, which they celebrate in their free-hand drawn 3D printed furniture.

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Gijs Bakker

Gijs Bakker is a prolific Dutch jewelry and product designer, who can be credited with being a leading character in bringing Dutch design to the forefront of international contemporary art.

At the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and at the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, Sweden, Bakker was trained in jewelry and industrial design. His design education fostered predominantly “functionalist thought and a critical approach to society, heavily influenced by the Bauhaus and De Stijl (T. Stephen, 2016).” In revolt to this modernist focus on form and function, is Bakker’s emphasis on concept driving design. Emphasizing the concept as the core of good design, Bakker then experiments with processes, materials and form, in order to most appropriately embody the idea (Ida, 2006).

 Droog

In 1993 collaboration between Renney Ramakers and Bakker resulted in the formation of the company Droog. Appreciation was garnered following their first international appearance at the Furniture Fair in Milan. The subtly insinuated contextual awareness was heralded by designers and critics, who were drawn to, “an unanimity which at first relied more on instinct than on rationality, but eventually was further confirmed by deeper examination (P. Antonelli, 1998)”.

Droog took off internationally, putting Dutch designers on the world stage, it became known as ‘conceptual design,’ though developed to incorporate further emphasis on concept within context (Bakker, 2011). The contextual grounding epitomized Droog design, and it was admired as thoughtfully embodying the zeitgeist of the 90’s.

Influenced by Bakker’s priority of concept, Droog has an “amorphous design ethic (T. Stephen, 2016)”, which adapts its form, process and material critically, resulting in an ambiguous aesthetic.  This ethic that umbrellered Droog design, “centered on careful conception and hand-marked creation, a knowing wink at contemporary issues and a sense of humour that is dry (T. Stephen, 2016)”.

 Design Academy Eindhoven

Bakker has been a leading figure in influencing Dutch designers through his work at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven. From 1987-2003 he headed the Bachelor program and in 2000 developed the Masters of IM program, which he headed from 2003-10, he then worked as the Dean of the three masters programs, until his resignation in 2012 due to conflicting opinions over the direction of the school.

Bakker’s legacy at the Design Academy Eindhoven, is a result of his conceptual and contextual approach in developing the Masters program, and the influence this had in shaping designers passing through the Academy. An integrated relationship between cultural research and design was an essential foundation in the course (designdaely, 2014). Bakker’s courses contributed to the establishment of the DAE as a world leader in design education, thus his influence on Dutch design during this period was embodied in the alumni that he directed. Stephen asserts in his article, Gijs Bakker (2016), that students of Bakker can be recognized by an undercurrent in their design; open-ended, transformative, even incomplete, “subtly insinuating themselves into life rather than shouting their arrival (Stephen, 2016).”

 Jewelry

 Bakker’s Jewelry can be conceived as wearable art, in conjunction with his late wife, who he collaborated with, the pair can be credited with bringing jewelry to the for-front of avant-gard art in the late 60’s and 70’s (Ida, 2006).

Social commentaries are ripe amongst a range of his works using lamented photography. Bakker’s Sports Figure and I don’t wear jewels I drive Them brooches, appropriate images of sports people and luxury cars respectively to subvert mass cultural obsessions, whilst his Holysport series further satirizes the adoration of sport culture through combining images of Jesus with soccer players.

Gullit Brooch, 1988, Sport Figure Series

Marcos GT 1996, I don’t Wear Jewels I Drive Them

Donatello Brooch, 1998

Reference List

G. Bakker, Gijs Bakker, SFU Dutch Design, online video Sept. 30 2011, viewed 2 October 2017, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZXs2sY3Zwk>

Gijs Bakker Award, Design Daely, 2014, website, viewed 3 October, https://www.designacademy.nl/News/tabid/2055/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2209/GIJS-BAKKER-AWARD.aspx

P.Antonelli, 1998, Droog Design: Spirit of the Ninties, Nothing Cooler than Dry, 010 publishers, p. 12.

Todd, Stephen, 2016, Gijs Bakker, Artichoke, No. 54, p.p. 85-89 or p. 86

Van Zijl, Ida, 2006, Gijs Bakker And Jewellery, Craft Arts International, Issue 66, p.44 and p.45.

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Attese (Vase Cabinet)

Studio Makkink & Bey, Attese, 2000

Attese is a vase cabinet created by Studio Makkink & Bey.  Studio Makkink & Bey is led by architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. This simple vase’s interesting duality character is the ability to play a double role; as a container and as an ornament. The wooden crate as a freight packaging has the function to protect the contents, but as a crate vase it becomes a means of display.  

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Blow Inflatable Armchair

Paolo Lomazzi, Donato D'Urbino, Jonathan De Pas, Blow Inflatable Armchair, 1967  

Blow Inflatable Armchair, 1967, is the first mass-produced inflatable chair designed by De Pas, D’Urbino, and Lomazzi. The design is one of the iconic designs in the 60s due to its youthful, playful expression of the casual lifestyle and culture ephemerality associated with period. What makes the object interesting is its unconventional structure. Air pumped into the PVC cover gives it is form. In a fully inflated state, the chair feels “solid” and can support weights. In its deflated state, it is pliable and soft. The chair would be like a large, empty balloon without enough supply of air pumping in.

Zürich Museum für Gestaltung, “Blow – inflatable chair (1967)”, Designindex, viewed on 3/10/17, http://www.designindex.org/products/design/blow-zanotta.html#0

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Sketch Chair

Sketch Chair is an installation created by four members of the Swedish design group Front. This installation and other Sketch furniture are free hand sketches onto space which then materialised into 3D objects. The process developed by the members to materialise these free hand sketches is what made the project so interesting. was made possible by a combination of two advanced techniques. The pen strokes of the design made in air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files. These files are then materialised into real pieces of furniture through Rapid Prototyping.

Front Project, ‘Sketch Chair’, Design Front, viewed on 3/10/17, http://www.designfront.org/category.php?id=174&product=660     

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Eye frame

Lip Frame

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Design Sketches

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Nose frame - Trial 2

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 Nose frame - Trial 1

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Production

The production process of Matryoshka dolls vary vastly between the traditional craftsman’s process and the mass produced dolls, predominantly sold as souvenirs. The disparities between the prices of these reflect the craftsmanship that goes into making the traditional doll, with the later being prized by collectors. Traditionally both a wood worker and painter would produce the dolls; equal emphasis was place on the skill of both.

A soft wood, that is lightweight and has a fine grain texture, often from a lime tree, is used. A full set will always be made from one piece of wood, due to the necessity for the dolls to stack inside one another.

The carver either begins with the largest or smallest doll, fitting the following dolls to the size of the initial one, thus measurements are not normal used.

Using a turning lathe and woodcarving knives and chisels, the craftsman will carve the inside of the doll, and then the outside. The doll is left to dry with the top half fitted to the lower, allowing the drying process to tightly fit the two halves together.

The dolls are then oiled and left to cure. They are then cleaned, and a primer applies.

Next the dolls are painted, usually with tempera or oil paints and gold leaf is also used for detailing.

Source: Matryoshka Doll, How Products are Made, website, n.d, viewed 18 September 2017, < http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Matryoshka-Doll.html>

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Russian Matryoshka Doll

The Matryoshka doll is a cultural Russian toy, consisting of typically seven wooden dolls decreasing in sizes, that all fit inside one another.

Nesting boxes can be traced back to China in the 10th Century and about a century later, the first nesting dolls would appear (Anashkina, 2017). Although this recursive ‘nesting’ theme had been introduced in Russia, through traded artifacts, it was in 1890 that the first Matryshka doll was designed, painted and carved by the two Russian artists, Segey Malyutin and Vasily Zvyzdochkin. These dolls became well-known globally after being presented at the Exposition Universelle world’s fair where they won the bronze medal in 1900.

Borne out of a period of political reconstruction, the dolls reinforced cultural traditions and became a significant symbol of Russian culture.

The word ‘matryoshka’ in Russian means ‘matron’ and is also a very famous female name during the old period of Russia before the revolution. The Latin root meaning of the word is ‘matter’, which means ‘mother’. In traditional Russian culture, with many generations and extended relatives, having a large and close knit family is important role in the family dynamic. The Russian nested doll is considered to represent the symbol of motherhood and fertility. The shape of the Matryoshka doll strongly resembles the wide and full-figure shape of the body of a woman. Also, with its round and delongated shaped similar to an egg, the doll represents the symbol of reproduction and fertility.  “Like an egg, out of the Matryoshka stacking doll life emerges in symbolic form. The biggest nesting doll births the smaller ones, just as the grandmother or babushka gives life to the younger generations of her family, symbolized through the full family of stacking dolls of decreasing sizes (Shabi, 2015).”

Reference List

Anashkina, 2017, The History of Nesting Dolls, The Russian Store, website, viewed 18th September 2017, < https://www.therussianstore.com/blog/the-history-of-nesting-dolls/>

K Shabi, ‘Matryoshka Nesting Dolls: Meaning of Russian Wooden Stacking Doll’, Lego Lemon, published 29 Jan 2015, viewed 18 Sep 2017, http://legomenon.com/russian-matryoshka-nesting-dolls-meaning.html

Bibliography

Edited and published by the Russian Legacy editors, ‘Matryoshka - Russian Wooden Nesting Dolls’, Russian Legacy, viewed 18 Sep 2017, https://russianlegacy.com/matryoshka-nesting-dolls.htm

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Matryoshka Doll