Installation view of Ron Arad: No Discipline at The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Jason Mandella.

Installation view of Ron Arad: No Discipline at The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Jason Mandella.

Sketch for Southern Hemisphere. 2007 N.d. Courtesy of Ron Arad Associates, London

Oh-Void 2. 2006 Acrylic; Edition by The Gallery Mourmans, The Netherlands Photo courtesy of Private Collection, U.S. Photo Erik and Petra Hesmerg

Creative Playboy:

Ron Arad may not be a familiar name to most of the population, but in the art and design world, he’s regarded as a bit of a bad-boy genius, known both for blending the worlds of design, art and architecture and a strong personality. On a recent July morning at MoMA, though, during a preview for “No Discipline,” the first major U.S. retrospective of Arad’s work running through October 19th, despite others’ best efforts to place the bad boy persona on center stage, Arad just let the work speak for itself.

First on the agenda was an exhibition walk-through. “No Discipline” presents a career’s worth of work organized by what Senior Curator of Design & Architecture Paola Antonelli calls “families:” related pieces sit on, within and outside a massive figure-eight structure that takes up most of the room, referencing the recurrence of the shape in Arad’s work. Screens throughout show video of Arad’s work, as well as a stop-motion video of the enormous figure eight’s installment. It was potent, and as I walked around, I was repeatedly asked to step out of the way for other hungry pressman eager to snap shots of – what?!- no curmudgeon, rather an agreeably posing Arad.

Next up: comments by MoMA Director Glenn Lowry and Paola Antonelli. Both made all the appropriate thank-yous, and Lowry put the exhibit in context: “This museum, as I think all of you know, really grew out of a deep commitment and belief in the fact that modern art expressed itself across many different media and disciplines…Ron stands out as one of the most influential designers of our time for his adventurous approach to form, structure, technology and materials, in work that spans the disciplines of industrial design, sculpture, architecture and mixed media installations…His relentless experimentation of materials of all kinds, as well as his radical reinterpretation of some of the most established archetypes in furniture that put him at the forefront of contemporary design. Ron, we’re so thrilled that you are with us today!”

(Applause.)

Then Paola Antonelli: “Ron Arad really did change design history – without really thinking about it – he doesn’t seem to care that much in general – but slowly but surely, one piece after another, and with his tremendous work at the Royal College of Art as head of the Design Products program for ten years….he really shaped – or unshaped and deconstructed – a new generation of designers…”

Speaking of Arad’s approach: “Push to the limit, materials, forms and people around you. It’s really important to push…Designers are those that make revolutions in technology and science and lifestyle, if you wish, come true, and transform them into objects you and I can use… I’d like to answer one question that I’ve had many times from many journalists, I’m going to say it here once and for all…as a very kind correspondent from the BBC very Britishly put it this morning: ‘Um, I have heard that Ron Arad is kind of – has a thing with being – strong willed. How did this exhibition go?’ It was truly a collaboration – it was his creative vision. Well, I was the discipline and he was the No. Blood was shed. It’s on the wall (pointing to the exhibition’s sign, which includes red paint splats, on the wall to her left); the result is fantastic. And we’re still friends. So, there you have it. Thank you!”

(Applause.)

And then the bad boy himself, Arad, dressed in a t-shirt, cap, sneakers and pants a cross between pajamas and hammer-pants, meandered to the podium. After a very quietly spoken thank you to another contributor, he quickly closed, saying, “All the rest is there, I have nothing to say. Enjoy it!”

No drama necessary. Guess we’ll just have to let badass work speak for itself.

For more information on MoMA, visit moma.org
For more information on Ron Arad, check out ronarad.com
Images courtesy of MoMA

Also, check out a great TED design talk by MoMA Senior Curator Paola Antonelli here:

I recently reviewed three great titles for Clear Magazine: Spacecraft 2, KarimSpace, and Marcel Wanders: Behind the Ceiling. Check out snippets from the reviews below!

Spacecraft 2: More Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts
Published by Gestalten / $75 / 280 pages
Pushing the limits of classical architecture and satisfying the changing spatial needs of modern life, the projects in Spacecraft 2 demonstrate innovation at its best…inspiring projects by young and little-known artists toy with conventional spatial design and reveal the genuine excitement and possibility that exist in architecture today.

KarimSpace
by Karim Rashid, forward by Daniel Libeskind
published by Rizzoli/ $86 / 256 pages
Karim Rashid is probably best known for his household designs for Umbra and Method. In KarimSpace, he shares real and conceptual interior projects for restaurants, hotels, residences, retail environments and public areas…his creative process and his ability to combine familiar shape and colors with unexpected materials…Sometimes space-age, sometimes almost biological, the work is always playful, and consistently lives up to Rashid’s definition of design as the “rigorous beautification of our built environments.”

Marcel Wanders: Behind the Ceiling
by Marcel Wanders
published by Gestalten /$70 / 320 pages
Wanders’ first monograph showcases a decade’s worth of provocative work: from personal art editions to textiles and furniture for clients like B&B Italia, Droog, Cappellini and Moooi, to architecture and interiors for Miami’s Mondrian South Beach Hotel and more. Photos, designer comments and sketches offer readers a first-hand account of Wanders’ world.

**Disclosure: links above are Amazon affiliate links.
To read the full reviews, visit book reviews on my Writing Samples page.

MTC facade corner

Australian design consultancy ARM continues to push the envelope down-under. Their latest projects, the Melbourne Recital Centre and  neighboring MTC Theatre, are turning heads round the globe, and recently earned ARM the Public Buildings category award from the Property Council of Australia Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Awards.

One eloquent judge described the projects as “understandable origami.” Looking at the new buildings, you can’t help but notice their strong angles, musical fluidity and theatrical color and shape – beautifully reflecting the spaces’ roles.

According to ARM, the complementary identities of the 1000 seat Recital Centre and 500 seat MTC theatre (both accessed from a landscaped civic plaza on Southbank Boulevard ) together “create an exciting new civic space within Melbourne’s vibrant arts precinct.”

The Melbourne Recital Centre was designed primarily as a chamber music venue. ARM’s design rationale considered the building itself as packaging for the valued music performed within, which led to its “box inside a box” structure. The Elisabeth Murdoch Hall seats 1000, while the Salon space seats 150 for pre-concert talks and experimental chamber music. The performance spaces feature timber panelling for ideal acoustics. Much of the multilevel foyer is visible from the exterior, allowing passersby a peak inside, and concert goers a view of Melbourne’s skyline.

The drama theatre is the first permanent home for the Melbourne Theatre Company. The Sumner Theatre seats 500 in a single tier, and the Lawlor Studio seats 150 for smaller productions. The building’s facade is composed of iridescent painted steel pipework and black aluminum cladding, creating a pattern that “challenges spatial perceptions through the blurring of 2 & 3 dimensional space – that which appears shaped is actually flat, and likewise, a 2 dimensional surface is actually 3 dimensional.”

For more information on ARM, visit www.a-r-m.com.au

"Seasick Yet Still Docked" by Mark Joshua Epstein

"Untitled" work on paper by Mark Joshua Epstein

"Untitled" work on paper by Mark Joshua Epstein

Describing his work, architecturally-inspired, Brooklyn-based artist Mark Joshua Epstein says: “I am interested in the binary of authentic and artificial. The distinction between the two presents itself most interestingly in the built environment. In my work I look to what can broadly be called recreations; period rooms, hobbyist models, architectural drawings. References are a starting point, but I am as interested in art-making materials as I am in conceptual investigation. I am an intuitive image-maker; once visual material is collected, making work becomes an improvisational act. My work swings between the poles of representation and abstraction, and in constantly changing camps, I try and stay loyal to both.”

According to Epstein, his newest painting, called Seasick Yet Still Docked (top), presents a significant shift in his work, one moving towards a looser pictorial construction that references models he has built. The painting uses fictional structures as a starting point (including a children’s book illustration of an imagined cathedral and models Epstein constructed himself – with alterations – from various hobby kits). It marks a departure from referencing actual buildings, which, he says, “has allowed me the freedom to reinvent my visual language and to experiment with the idea of narrative in a new way.”

For the works on paper, the setting was inspired by the Thorne Miniature Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago. Small, unrelated structures float through the rooms, “posing questions about authenticity and scale.” An inorganic ivy invades the period rooms, and “the addition of this geometric element brings the pieces further toward the realm of surrealism. The works are larger then the referents on which they are based, presenting an interesting inversion—rooms have been miniaturized and subsequently blown up again.”

For more information on Mark Joshua Epstein, visit:
Drawing Center: http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/portfolio.cfm

“Drawing the Line” review: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Arts/51526-Sketch-artists/

Uncommon Ground” group show at Vane Gallery, Newcastle, UK, February 2009: http://www.vane.org.uk/exhibitions/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID=46&page=exhib1&archive=true

"Corner Knot" by Daniel Arsham, 2008. EPS, plaster, paint, joint compound. 18 x 64 x 20 inches

Set design for Merce Cunningham, Val de Marne, by Daniel Arsham. France, 2009.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a studio visit with sculptor Daniel Arsham. Arsham describes his work as “architectural interventions,” often playing upon existing structures to create unexpected yet organic sculptures – a knot at the corner of two walls, or a chair emerging from within a wall, and so on.

I first came across Arsham last December in Miami, and his light installation at the Beacon/Miami for Art Basel. Most recently, he was in the press for his second collaboration with legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham.  Cunningham is known for creating full evenings of dance in spaces other than traditional theater, with the understanding that the space itself becomes the performance’s décor.In the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, artist Robert Rauschenberg created scenic designs and costumes in situ, utilizing what was available either within the city or theater where the performance occurred.

For the latest Cunningham-Arsham collaboration, Arsham created site-specific set designs for Au Tour De Paris (coinciding with Cunningham’s 90th birthday). As the performers dance and the music plays, Arsham cuts into heavy black foam cubes, lit white from within, manipulating the scenery as the show progresses. The performances were a surprise for all, as Arsham and Cunningham had little creative communication prior, and all the design elements (choreography, music, décor, costumes, and lighting) changed throughout the tour.

This July, Arsham’s newest work will be on public display, courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. A collaborative performance called “Untitled Corner” by Arsham, choreographer and media artist Jonah Bokaer and choreographer and dancer Judith Sanchez Ruiz will examine “pattern recognition and perceptual faculties as they apply to the human body, creating the illusion of expanded space.” Part dance, part music, part architectural manipulation (and part of Sitelines ’09), they’ll be performing for free at One Chase Manhattan Plaza at Nassau Street July 6, 10, 13 and 17th at 12:30 pm and July 8th and 15th at 7pm. It’s sure to be a good show, so come by!

For more information on Daniel Arsham, visit www.danielarsham.com