Bamboo Unlimited: Marcelo Villegas Chairs
As a suitable tribute to a marvelous material, here’s a chair by Colombian bamboo builder and designer Marcelo Villegas. While too much of newly-designed bamboo furniture looks like you have to give up something to use it (like comfort, stability and style, for example), Villegas’ works are artistic masterpieces and fulfill their comfort-functions admirably. We’ve heard that he’s involved in building and furniture design for the Nihiwatu villas expansion project on Sumba Island. Excellent news. Let this be an inspiration to us all, reach for the stars, and build a beautiful bamboo ladder to get there.
Christmas Shopping in Bali Lesson 2: Word of Mouth
This year there are only five places to go Christmas shopping in Bali. Number Two: Word of Mouth, on Jalan Kunti near Bali Deli. The place is a showroom-playroom with a cafe and bar. Talk about one stop shopping. If you have to find gifts for everyone on a long list, the last thing you want to do in Bali is go hauling around in traffic, parking and unparking, and fuming with frustration. With that in mind, I’m focusing on places where you can get fed, watered, and find gobs of great gifts without wasting your playtime. Word of Mouth meets all of the above requirements, and then some. Read more…
Brussels: Apotheosis of the Arbitrary and the Extraordinary Ordinary
We are in Brussels today, where the arbitrary is deliberate, and the unexpected is . . . well . . . expected. Eccentricity is ordinary, serendipity is a ubiquity, and we keep bumping into people we know, as if it were all scripted . . . for the theatre of the absurd. We love it. Discovery du jour, after a stroll through the marvelous Marolles flea market, was the showroom of K. Loan on Rue Blaes.
Bruno says it is like a set from Luc Besson’s Le Dernier Combat. In Brunese, that means, “it’s great.” It is. The photos here do not do it justice, nor does their tiny website. Here is a master of mise en place, who takes weathered industrial steel and juxtaposes ordinary objects and extraordinary ones against them in such a way that voilà! it is a still life. Everybody thinks they can do the same these days. But they are wrong. It takes the eye of one such as K. Loan. A very rare eye indeed. Delightful.
Hotel Tugu and Word of Mouth Bring Bebel Gilberto to Canggu
Brazilian diva Bebel Gilberto gave a surprise concert last Friday at Hotel Tugu Bali. The lovely Lucienne Anhar, la princesa de Tugu is always full of surprises. She and her mischievous friends Valentina Audrito and Abhishake Kumbhat cooked up the idea of the concert just three days in advance. Bebel was in Bali, taking a break from her Asian tour, when Lucienne, Valentina and Abhi proposed the idea, and of course, she said, “Why not?” Spontaneity is magic. Three cheers for spontaneity.
Tugu as a venue is magic, too. This time it was spiced up with the wild and whimsical furniture creations of Word of Mouth (Valentina and Abhi’s daring design nexus here in Bali). On the night, Bebel herself was decked out in Word of Mouth designs (Val and Abhi do innovative, wearable fashion as well as furniture, architecture, lighting and accessories). Bebel was so taken by her strappy slinky WoM outfit (above), she wore it again for a concert in Singapore, her next stop after Bali.
Spontaneity is very Bali. It’s how we live. So it was no surprise that despite the moment’s-notice nature of the event, over 300 Bebel fans turned up, buzzing with anticipation. Invitation was almost exclusively by word of mouth (pun intended). Valentina and Abhi tell us that this kind of synaptic networking is part of the Word of Mouth mission statement. Hence, the name. It expresses an unwavering faith in the interconnectedness of like minded people the world over, and in the ways that webs of inspiration work . . . without planning, without paperwork, like an ecosystem.
Bored with Boring Bali Furniture? Yaari Rom’s Got Insane Alternatives
This is seriously crazy furniture from certifiably wacky Bali-based artist, Yaari Rom. So if you’re bored of synthetic rattan sectionals and routine teak garden furniture, go see Yaari. Bali is a magnet for creative eccentrics, but few are as prolific and irrepressible as Yaari is. He does furniture, furnishing fabrics, fashion and body painting events (for which he is internationally famous, or more accurately, notorious). Read more…
Shoe. Chair. Design Synchronicity? Or Separated at Birth?
At left is a shoe by Rem Koolhaas and Galahad Clark, from their new collection of footwear for their UK footwear brand, United Nude. At right is a chair by Joris Laarman Lab at the Friedman Benda gallery in New York. Strange. Are black webs the new black? Dezeen blogged both of these yesterday. BTW, I absolutely love United Nude shoes. And they are very comfortable. And not so terribly expensive.
Living Modern: Embrace Time, Return to the Mountain
The recent mass mania for rigorous modernism has tended to vivisect what is most human in our homes, workplaces and public spaces. When the seminal modernist, Le Corbusier (above) declared, “a house is a machine for living in,” the operative word was living. The intention was to shape structures, spaces, and their contents intelligently, to support human life, human dreams, and human necessities – - and always with a weather eye to nature, its rhythms and its imperatives.
Javanese Antique Furniture Enters the Realm of Fine Art
ICON Asian Arts (Bali) and Editions Didier Millet (Singapore) are collaborating to raise Javanese antiques to the level of fine art. The Bali gallery will host on 3 December 2009 two simultaneous events: the opening of the world premier exhibition of the Smith-Tirtoprodjo Collection of Javanese antiques; and the launch of a comprehensive illustrated book on the subject, Javanese Antique Furniture and Folk Art, published by Editions Didier Millet.
The Smith-Tirtoprodjo Collection is the most extraordinary group ever assembled of 18th and 19th century artworks in teak from the villages of Central and East Java. These masterpieces challenge preconceived ideas about Javanese art and furniture, compelling us to regard them not as mere objects of use, but as works of art in their own right. With their primitive purity, power of form, and visceral expression of humanity, these works hold their own among the most celebrated tribal art from all corners of the Indonesian archipelago.
Beditorial: Let’s Take Sleeping Seriously
Clients often get us involved in designing and fabricating beds. This can lead to insomnia for all of us, including the end users of the beds. Conclusion: bed design is a nightmare. Most beds we see out there are designed for a “look,” but with little regard for how a bed is used. A bed should be comfortable to get into and arise from, especially in the dark, and in states of altered consciousness. A bed should have no sharp corners or gratuitous hard surfaces. This seems obvious. Then why are platform beds so wildly popular at present? They are ankle bangers, shin scrapers, knee-de-cappers and toe compactors. Show of hands: Who has never stumbled or banged themselves on the edge of a platform bed? Read more…
Custom Furniture: 90% Perspiration
Last week was spent with two designers from Douglas Durkin Design, Greg Elich and Andrew Horn. They were in Bali to work on a collection of extraordinary custom furniture for a residence in Hawaii.
For those of you who might imagine that creating high-end custom furniture is pure glamour, just have a look “backstage” at the process of design refinement. We spent hours and hours each day in the workshop, a fascinating place, but very dusty, and very, very hot and humid. And lo! Wonder of wonders! A furniture workshop normally has almost no furniture suited to comfortable sitting, so we perched and paced and mopped the sweat from our brows, all the while utterly absorbed with the work at hand.