Eco-warriors designers celebrate discarded stuff

Transformation, the exhibition curated by Arpna Gupta by Create Culture put together eight amazing up-cyclers, eco-warriors, material scientists and artists whose work to give second life to unwanted materials.

Create Culture the Indian Design Platform back to the London Design Festival, after its 2015 debut – this time exploring the theme of Transformation.

It takes inspiration from the reuse, re-purposing of everyday Indian objects. Economic growth and rapid urbanization has meant that India has gone through a dramatic transformation in recent years: places that were sleepy towns just a decade ago, have evolved into unrecognizable mega-cities. Both new and old cities produce large quantities of waste, which is by and large poorly managed. Most of the recycling is done by an unorganized group the ‘kabariwallahs’ – who handpick, sort and transport tonnes of waste in every corner of the country.

The exhibition showcases a group of Indian designers embraced the concept of transformation and reuse it as aesthetic principle.

The Light Wallah – Photo: Emelie Tornberg

Curator Arpna Gupta says: “With so much emphasis on high design and high-tech in typical design shows, an exhibition focusing on waste as a resource brings a new perspective to the international conversation about designing for life in contemporary cities.”

The exhibition is designed by Scottish-Indian artist Jasleen Kaur, whose work is focused on social histories manifested in materials and objects. For this exhibition, she creates display plinths using industrial-sized food cans, 2.5 kg containers for tomatoes, chickpeas, spinach, oil and other foodstuffs.

The Retyrement Plan by Anu Tandor Vieira

During the opening last night I had the opportunity to talk to Alkesh Parmar. Alkesh is a British- Indian design maker. The Light Wallah series that he proposes in Trasformation, it is a series of restyled iconic throwaway items, the clay cup or kulahad. The kulahad are handmade terracotta vassels, usually discard after a single use. He collected and  gives them a new exciting form and transforming in lamps. The second function takes advantage from the shape of the object and the thermal quality of the material. The result is spectacular!

Minimalist and experimental, the work of the  Mumbai based architects  Disney Davis and Nitin Barcha from Studio Material Immaterial. Each project reuse textile material. The Papier – Mache’ are lightings inspired by natural objects, from flowers, mushrooms, to fern and mosses.

Papier- Mache by Material Immaterial, photo: Emelie Tornberg

Transformation gives new creative ideas, pushes the boundaries of design and questions traditional perceptions to new challenges of consumption.

Transformation is part of the London Design Festival.

You can visit the exhibition from 19th -25th September at the Guardian Gallery – Kings Place, 90 York Way, King’s Cross London N1 9GU.

 

Idealistic design to re-think a better world! Welcome to London Design Biennale

For the first year takes place the London Design Biennale this month at the Somerset House. Installation from 37 countries around the world will showcase their idea of Utopia.

The exhibits look at existing and future solution to create an idealistic and happier world, like wise more hypothetical interpretations of utopia.

The exhibition is held at the Somerset House, the venue is fantastic and partly make the Biennale itself.

Some of the installation are really connected to the main topic, really imaginative some more provoking and difficult to understand…

While some of the installations appear convoluted and tenuously linked to the theme, there is also imaginative, thought-provoking and intuitive work, which proves design’s role in both tackling world issues, and helping to highlight them.

Here are my favorite from the show:

Japan: A Journey Around the Neighbourhood Globe
By Yasuhiro Suzuki

        

Japan’s offers a clever look at how design can be interpreted in alternative ways.

The  Artist Yasuhiro Suzuki bases his piece on the Japanese concept of “looking at one thing as if it were another” and distorts everyday objects to make them appear as different things.

Visitors will be look at strange objects which create optical illusions, such as spinning portrait images, an hollow tree stump which has water dripping into it from an unknown place in the ceiling every few seconds.

The piece looks at the endless possibilities of design, and also spreads the message that utopia can be found in being open-minded to different points of view. ( add notes from exhibition)

Lebanon: Mezzing in Lebanon
By Annabel Karim Kassar Architects

 

Lebanon was lucky enough to have been given the entire outdoor River Terrace space of Somerset House  – the perfect setting for a colorful, authentic imitation of the streets of Beirut.

Lebanon takes on Utopia  as an interactive pavilion. It looks at how utopia can sometimes be found at home and give visitors the chance to temporarily absorb themselves within the culture of the country.

Visitors can expect a microcosm of Beirut – authentic food and orange juice stalls, a barber, a cinema filled with hand-made mattresses and carpets and an area where they can play backgammon. A giant map of the city covers the floor, a reference to the fact that the city was until recently mainly navigated by landmarks rather than its map system.

Turkey: The Wish Machine
By Autoban

 

Turkey’s modern-day wishing well is a simple but poignant way of inspiring hope in a country which has been at the pinnacle of the migrant crisis.

Visitors can write their wish on a piece of paper, roll it up and slip it inside a futuristic pod, then step across a tunnel of transparent hexagonal tubes to drop it into the suction-powered machine.

They’ll then see it spiral through the tubes, and even make its way around the West Wing of Somerset House, where the tubes have been laced across the walls.

The destination of the messages is unknown. The installation incites hope and consideration for others through design. It brings an ancient concept ” make a wish”  into 2016 and openly invites visitors to interact with the display.

The London Design Biennale takes place at Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA from 7-27 September.

Special thanks to Damn Magazine to invite me to the  London Design Biennale and take part at their event organized by the Belgian Embassy at the Somerset Terrace!

 

Soviet Hippies: peace, love, and freedom in the Soviet Era!

 

 

I have always been interested and fascinated by subcultures. Yesterday I came across an amazing exhibition about the  Estonian Hippies  at the Red Gallery in Shoreditch.

“Soviet Hippies” curated by  KIWA and Terje Toomistu  is the result of the anthropological study and recorded interviews with fifteen people from the hippie generation in Estonia. The Soviet West which was distinguished by its unique scene of rock music and bohemian vibe.

Historically the Khrushchev Thaw (1956‒1964) that followed Stalin’s repressions brought a breath of fresh air to some places in the Soviet Union. In Estonia, which is often regarded as the Soviet West, the access to Finnish television and foreign radio broadcasts was the key source of divergence.

The “free world” were rocking in the spirit of the slogan “Make love not war.” The stagnation that accompanied Brezhnev’s rule (1964-1982), further marked with the events in 1968 in Prague, did not leave much hope for political progress nor the feeling of individual freedom. Thus the generation that grew up in late 1960’s took the world as a big lie and decided just to deal with their own things.

The hippie movement that captivated hundreds of thousands of young people and evoked various social movements in the West in the 1960s had a profound and lasting impact on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Affected by perceived Western freedoms and inspired by various spiritual traditions, a counterculture of flower children developed in the Soviet Union. Disengaged from the Soviet official ideology of proclaimed atheism, authoritarianism and Soviet morals, the Soviet hippie movement found its expression through rock music, the cult of love, pacifism, actual and cosmic travel, and self-fashioning that was generally considered unacceptable for Soviet citizens.

In the shadow of strict rules and harsh repressions, a colorful crowd of artists, musicians, freaks, vagabonds and other long-haired drop-outs created their own world, their own underground system that connected those who believed in peace, love, and freedom for their bodies and souls.”

However, the mere trend toward hippie fashions, long hair and great rock concerts was enough to make the Soviet authorities concerned. In the eyes of the KGB, the hippies were poisoned by degraded Western influences, posing real danger to the regime and the moral construction of Homo Sovieticus.

Highly reccomended!

Exhibition opens to the public from Saturday 3rd of September until September 18th From 12noon until 6pm daily. FREE ENTRY!

RED gallery: 1-3 Rivington St, London EC2A 3DT

More information:
Soviet Hippies exhibit homepage: http://www.hipid.ee/english/
Soviet Hippies forthcoming documentary film: http://www.soviethippies.com/
Red Gallery website: http://redgalleryldn.com/soviet-hippies-photography-exhibition-friday-sept-2-2016-1900-to-sun-sept-18-2016-1700/
Powerplant Bookings website: http://powerplantbookings.com/
Kiwa’s website: http://www.kiwanoid.com/;
KULTUSFILM: http://www.kultus.ee/