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Points of Reference: Design history / Get excited

The tingling sensation of making connections in design history.

Martine Bedin (for Memphis), Super lamp prototype, 1981. Painted metal with lighting components. // Source: vam.ac.uk

Martine Bedin (for Memphis), Super lamp prototype, 1981. Painted metal with lighting components. // Source: vam.ac.uk

Martine Bedine’s classic Super Lamp from has been floating my boat lately. Maybe because making furniture has been part of my recent projects, or this object expresses so much exuberance, or I’ve been working in a design museum. Or maybe because it’s just super cute. Buy one, or just check out the production model’s wheels, which differ from the prototype pictured above, at the Memphis Milano store.

The Memphis design movement isn’t from Tennessee—it was a group of Italian designers working in the 1980s. Designer Ettorre Sottsass (1917-2007) founded the movement when he convened a meeting (during which a song about Memphis played, hence the name). Memphis’ most iconic creation might be Sottsass’ Carlton room divider. It’s sort of a slap in the faces of both classical and modern definitions of taste and design.

"Carlton" room divider, 1981 Ettore Sottsass (Italian, born Austria, 1917), Designer; Memphis s.r.l., Manufacturer Wood, plastic laminate; 76 3/4 x 74 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (194.9 x 189.9 x 40 cm) // Source: metmuseum.org.

Ettorre Sottsass, Carlton room divider, 1981; Manufactured by Memphis s.r.l., Wood, plastic laminate; 76 3/4 x 74 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. // Source: metmuseum.org.

But I was even more impressed to learn that Sottsass also contributed another icon to design history: the red Valentine typewriter, which he co-designed for Olivetti:

Ettore Sottsass, Jr., Perry A. King, Olivetti Manufacturing Company, manufacturer, Valentine Portable Typewriter and Case, 1969, Plastic, rubber and metal, 4 x 12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches // Source: risdmuseum.org

Ettore Sottsass, Jr., Perry A. King, Olivetti Manufacturing Company, manufacturer,
Valentine Portable Typewriter and Case, 1969, Plastic, rubber and metal, 4 x 12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches // Source: risdmuseum.org

If you ever have a chance to visit an exhibition of Olivetti posters, go! I saw a great introduction to Olivetti’s design influence years ago, and it still sticks with me.

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Get Excited:

Here’s what else has me looking up lately:

Harvester Arts’ new website. It’s looking great. You can see photos of projects by local artists exhibited in September made in response to my residency project in April/May. Excited to see their 2016 artist in residence line-up!

Temporary Art Review’s recent posts reporting on and following Common Field‘s Hand in Glove conference—connecting “connecting contemporary, experimental, noncommercial arts organizations.” Sarrita Hunn’s essay, “Artists for Artists’ Sake” is especially recommended [great points. Disclosure: it’s illustrated by Hunn’s activity sheet for Make Things (Happen)].

(And, putting ideas into action, learn more about Portland ‘Pataphysical Society at Temporary Art Review’s profile!)

I just received “Mobile Autonomy—Exercises In Artists’ Self-organization” from the Netherlands; looking forward to digging in deeper and getting more clarity. (The first chapter is an interview with Thomas Hirschhorn, the second is something like his manifesto. My understanding of his projects are slightly improved, though I found his responses evasive and his writing roundabout.)

N. Dockx, P. Gielen, Mobile Autonomy - Exercises In Artists' Self-organization (Valiz), 2015

N. Dockx, P. Gielen, Mobile Autonomy – Exercises In Artists’ Self-organization (Valiz), 2015

Equity Gallery is open. It’s the exhibition space of the NY Artist’s Equity Association, an organization founded in 1947 by artists, for artists. Founding members include Ben Shahn, and Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, whose endowment makes the new gallery possible. In thinking about artist’s empowerment, it’s amazing to see the legacy of past progressive movements, which can feel so distant, continue on today.

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Thought Experiments in Agency

“members and allies of this ‘field’ must leverage what power we are given within the commercial and academic (and also increasingly civic) spheres as ‘cultural workers’ to position ourselves outside, and in resistance to, these hegemonic power structures. As artist-centric institutions, this means using radical forms of participation to forefront self-organized, inclusive and equitable structures – this means creating new social imaginaries.

If our failing institutions are based on market capitalist economy, authoritarian republics and eurocentricity – then our ‘alternative’ institutions by necessity must be based on decentralized cooperative economics, participatory democracy, equality and ecology.”

—Sarrita Hunn, “Artists for Artists’ Sake,” Temporary Art Review, October 19, 2015

Sarrita Hunn on Artists for Artists’ Sake

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Community

New online art journals

I’m cheered by these two new art journals. In addition to providing a platform for emerging critics, these outlets have the potential to cover under-publicized exhibitions and offer fresh perspectives.

On-Verge is CUE Art Foundation’s website for “Alternative Art Journalism.”

Temporary Art Review was co-founded by Sarrita Hunn (CCA MFA 2004) and James McAnally. It’s “a platform for contemporary art criticism that focuses on alternative spaces and critical exchange among disparate art communities.” Founded in the Midwest, there are already reports from Houston, Saint Louis, San Francisco, New Mexico, and Portland.

I would encourage any artist interested in writing criticism to develop submissions for these journals, or get in touch with Art Practical about writing a 250-word Shotgun Review.

Writing about art affords artists:
• more opportunities to look at art, whether it’s merely the extra motivation created by deadlines, or invitations to press previews;
• the experience of thinking more deeply about media, forms, messages, and presentations;
• new perspectives on art shows—that is, critical distance to others’ art as well as your own;
• a critic’s perspective on the art world, at least in terms of how galleries receive writers into their spaces or contact them in their publicity efforts;
• experience honing the craft of writing, if you’re lucky enough to work with great editors.

In grad school, I expressed fear of taking the leap into criticism—who am I to judge?—when MP advised me that I already know everything I need to know in order to write about art. I think she was saying that you don’t need permission to write about art—you just need the skills of perception, and the ability to turn those observations into thoughts and sentences. Of course having an understanding of media, materials, artists and spaces helps, but for those artists who are at all interested in criticism, I’d say: take the leap.

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