Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Timeless Objects


In the course of a quarter-century of working in design, I have seen a kaleidoscope of styles. Every few years, a new trend, shape, or colors are promoted by mass media, soon to be culturally consumed and discarded as outdated. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Shouldn’t design continuously aspire for new and different expressions?

And yet, in our profession persists an often-voiced desire for timeless everlasting values, for design described as permanent and archetypal, for qualities one finds in anonymous objects of everyday or in old industrial catalogues.

Our new collection attempts to make objects as timeless as ancient bronze monuments.

Inside each piece there is “a found object”: either a disposable item or an anonymous thing culled from the mundane texture of our everyday life. Once we apply our special treatment, the familiar shapes start to look and feel like bronze sculpture. Trivial objects suddenly look permanent and essential. Are these pieces brand-new, or have they been made long time ago? We imagine objects that defy time and obsolescence, things that withstand fluctuations of trends and style.

Making Timeless Objects has required a great deal of time and experimentation. The material is applied over the surfaces of the objects with our own proprietory technique. All pieces are made by hand at our studio, in a limited edition. Each object literally carries the fingerprints of its maker.

Timeless Objects will be presented to the public at ExperimentaDesign in Lisbon in September 2009 and at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in October 2009. On November 3rd 2009, a personal exhibition TIMELESS will open at Wright in Chicago, where we will present unique works created to accompany the edition pieces (more info at www.wright20.com).

Selected objects from the collection are distributed by Wabnitz Editions (www.wabnitzeditions.com).