Take beatnik poetry–the Love Flower Cherish Peace thing.
Give that technique of stringing disparate words or forms in this case to a free-thinking, 29-year-old industrial designer from Wisconsin who finds creative direction in all of this. And what comes of it?
Try: Bloom Uplifting Refresh.
His words, his poetry, his bar stool.
It’s a delicate bar stool reduced to its most minimal self. A curved foam seat. A pencil-thin stem made possible by a nylon rod inserted inside. A disc base. The stem gives gentle sway. The sitter seems to float.
“I call it Neo-Symbolism. It’s an aesthetic version of beatnik poetry–taking the connotations of form and creating a different meaning,” explains Christopher Streng, author of said stool and design philosophy–who maybe isn’t as out there as he seems. Streng is currently working with the venerable Kohler Co. on a new line of products for the bathroom.
“What I’ve been trying to do is redefine Modernism,” Streng says. “We’ve got Modernism, Post-Modernism and contemporary. But there’s a lot of stuff that people are coming out with now that doesn’t just have a new name, but a new identity. They’re not just new products. They’re a new aesthetic.”
And with that declaration of Radical New Ideas, let the show begin.
Curtains go up Thursday at The Merchandise Mart for the fourth annual Chicago Design Show, which is one of only two major international home furnishings fairs in this country (the other, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, will be in New York in the spring) that focus on the contemporary genre.
A combination trade fair and public event, the four-day show brings together 200 lines of contemporary home furnishings (mainly furniture, but also lighting, accessories, rugs and other textiles and kitchens) in a total of 130 booths. With a $15 ticket, the public is welcome in on the last two days of the show’s run: Saturday and Nov. 5.
Exhibitors include manufacturers, distributors, designer and retail showrooms and individual designers and craftspeople. They come from the U.S. and abroad–namely, Italy. For the second year, a group of Italian companies (which has grown to an impressive list of 48) is making the trip to show their wares under the collective banner of the Italian Design Furniture Show. It is essentially a show-within-the-show.
And certainly, those Italians will turn heads with their radical new ideas. They always do.
But the young Streng is indicative of a new American confidence.
Emerging in this country is a crop of independent designers bent on exploring not only how a 21st Century chair or table or quilt should look, but also how it might be produced more efficiently and from what untried materials it could be fashioned. Unvexed by a lack of support from big U.S. manufacturers, more than a few of these designers are taking matters into their own hands. They’re figuring out ways to manufacture their own designs or are pitching Italian companies, who long have had a reputation for experimentation.
That’s radical. And officials at The Merchandise Mart have made a diligent effort this year to find these American pioneers and bring them into the Chicago Design Show.
“I’m using a different material to build a cabinet. I’m investigating the possibilities of sheet-metal steel,” explains Owen Cheung, formerly a dimensional designer for Walt Disney Imagineering (he did 3-D models for theme parks). The 28-year-old Cheung opened Kagu, his own Los Angeles studio, a year ago to develop contemporary furniture that is at once functional, modern and affordable. The Chicago Design Show is his first trade fair.
His philosophy: “A lot of my design decisions have to do with price and ease of manufacturing. It’s not just about how a piece looks.”
Sheet-metal steel, the manna of the automotive and aeronautical industries, allows Cheung to create a strong piece of furniture with minimal design. The material is bent into a structural sidewall for his cabinets. Top and base, made from wood or a clear polycarbonate, clamp into place via aluminum tension rods. Compression becomes the joinery.
Cheung is hoping to find a manufacturer to take over production. But he is prepared to do it himself and bring 13 variations of his Evan cabinets to market at prices from $700 to $3,000–prices “my friends and I could afford,” says Cheung.
Seattle furniture designer Mark Allan Malone is introducing a radical departure from his usual fare of expensive, custom furniture. Fascinated by the strength and beauty of humble bamboo plywood, Malone created Alexander, “a jaunty, snappy little chair” whose design is vaguely reminiscent of Alexander Calder’s stabiles. The side chair, aniline-dyed in bright colors, sells for a jaunty little price of $345.
And then there’s Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle, a husband-and-wife team of quiltmakers from Oak Park who are doing something radical with the tradition of finely made coverlets.
They welcomed technology into the process–and view it as a design decision, not a sellout.
They design colorful Neo-Retro-style quilts on a Macintosh computer, which allows them expediency and a precise template from which they hand-cut the hundreds or thousands of fabric pieces that make up their patterns. And then they hunker down in front of their sewing and industrial quilting machines and put it all together. The machines are their equal partners, creating lush quilting patterns and a durability not seen in quilts done entirely by hand.
Their process allows them to turn out approximately 150 intricate FunQuilts a year without resorting to sweatshop labor. It is a feat that would take the average traditional quilter some 18 years or more.
Other notables at the show: swanky, fused glass bowls and platters from Kathleen Ash (of Studio-KGlass in Austin, Texas) who figured out how to inject some mighty fine shadow play into her glass work; a new color way in mosaic Venetian glass tile from the esteemed Bisazza company of Italy; modern Tibetan rugs from Chicago painter and designer Kurt Meinecke; more new pieces of production furniture from renowned art furniture master Wendell Castle.
Consumers should note that not everything on the show floor is easily bought. Some exhibitors will take orders and sell to the public. Some will insist that a designer or architect make the purchase.
Others will advise consumers of stores or showrooms that sell their products. And still others will contact shoppers later when distribution is established here.
For those who simply must have a certain piece, talk to the exhibitor. Almost all of them sell their samples during the show and let loose of them on closing day. Be sure to ask if there are “show specials.”
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THE FACTS
Chicago Design Show
What: An exhibition of contemporary furnishings
When: Thursday and Friday (to the design trade only), Saturday and Nov. 5 (to the public)
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 5
Where: 2nd floor of The Merchandise Mart, Kinzie and Wells Streets; registration on the ground-floor lobby; conference programs in The Merchandise Mart Conference Center, 2nd floor.
Cost: $15 on-site (includes a $3 coupon to be used toward admission to SOFA 2000 Chicago, the annual Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art exposition at Navy Pier, and one free ticket to a program of your choice)
Seminars: $15 a program
Special exhibitions:
– “The Essential Home,” an 1,800-square-foot model apartment/idea lab conceived by Nasir Kassamali, owner of Luminaire in River North, filled with ideas for creating rooms and spaces that better nurture the soul.
– “The Future Furniture,” a juried exhibition with entries from emerging architects and designers across the country.
Call: 800-677-6278 or 312-527-7600
Web site: www.merchandisemart.com
