ISSUE 2 NEW YORK DESIGN WEEK MAY 2018 2018 Sight Unseen (sightunseen.com) is an online magazine that uncovers what’s new and next in design and the visual arts, with a focus on independent makers often working outside traditional disciplinary boundaries. It was founded in 2009 by editors and curators Jill Singer and Monica Khemsurov. 2018 marks the fifth edition of Sight Unseen OFFSITE, a curated design fair produced annually by Sight Unseen’s founders. This year’s show incorporates a primary hub space at 201 Mulberry Street — featuring group exhibitions as well as Sight Unseen–curated projects focused around the theme of collaboration — plus 12 partner venues around Manhattan, each of which is hosting a new collection, exhibition, or site- specific installation. The participants — whose projects and installations are featured in the pages of this magazine — occupy a variety of increasingly intersecting disciplines, and represent the more holistic, inclusive attitude towards design that Sight Unseen has always championed. Use this magazine to find out more about the designers included in this year’s show, and as a map to plan out your New York Design Week itinerary.

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2 3 01 INTRODUCTION

04 3.1 Phillip Lim BEN & AJA BLANC 06 Creatures of Comfort STUDIO SAYSO 08 Retrosuperfuture SLASH OBJECTS Contents 10 Assembly New York LLOT LLOV 14 Samuji JAMIE IACOLI × JOHN HOGAN 16 Opening Ceremony CROSBY STUDIOS 20 Roll & Hill STUDIO PROBA 22 Coming Soon DOWEL JONES × TOM HANCOCKS 26 Design Within Reach FURNISHING UTOPIA 30 The Primary Essentials GRAIN 32 Saturdays NYC THE PRINCIPALS 34 Viso GIANCARLO VALLE × VISO PROJECT

201 MULBERRY 38 Field Studies 42 Block Shop 48 Vonnegut/Kraft × Slow and Steady Wins the Race for Weft 52 Cold Picnic for Levi’s Made & Crafted 56 Moving Mountains × Giselle Hicks for Levi’s Made & Crafted 60 Twyla 66 Kim Markel for Glossier 68 School of the Art Institute of Chicago 72 OFFSITE Selects 74 Norway × New York 76 Steven Bukowski × Hannah Bigeleisen for HotelTonight

80 MAP 81 EVENT GUIDE 83 SPONSORS 84 COLOPHON

4 5 BEN & AJA BLANC 3.1 PHILLIP LIM

The Blancs met as grad stu- and we’re dealing with usable dents at RISD, and with Aja’s objects,” says Ben. The latest 3.1 background in museum studies Phillip Lim line, says Aja, is also and Ben’s in furniture design, looking at layer-ing in an inter- their combined practice esting way — asking how you merge benefits from a broad historical minimalism with multiple knowledge, critical eye, and textures and patterns — that will fabrication expertise. They also contrast with and complement share a consistency of vision, the couple’s designs: “We love the especially when it comes to idea of someone in a bright red the materials they work with. outfit possibly sitting on our Their newest collection revolv- muted palette chair,” says Ben. es strictly around rift white “It’s about the dance that’s hap- 3.1 Phillip Lim oak; curly, short-cut shearling; pening between those elements.” and mirror. “We’ve chosen these materials for very spe- cific reasons that are in the details, in the grain, in the color and the texture,” says Aja. For inspiration, they’re not afraid to look to certain giants of the art world, to consider BY DEBORAH SHAPIRO the kinds of questions those PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHANIE EWENS big names were asking, and to then work out their own approach as an answer. Their Marfa Chair, for instance, is an overt nod to Donald Judd. To warm it up a bit, they rounded some edges and look- ed to the tactility of Méret Oppenheim’s fur-covered teacup and saucer. A shearling backrest adds a literal plush- ness, but it’s the unexpected placement of shearling inside the chair’s lower half that creates, in Ben’s words, “a cave-like cubby” and a sense The collaboration between Providence-based husband-and- of coziness, “like pulling a blanket up tight.” wife designers Ben and Aja Blanc is an intentional back- It’s also easy to see parallels between the Blancs’ work and-forth, and what emerges from it is an enlivening tension and that of fashion designer Phillip Lim, in whose NoHo in the objects and furniture they create ― spare shapes and shop they’ve installed the full collection — the Marfa chair, clean lines matched with an element of formal ease or a companion side table, layered “mirror collages” in peach material softness. Pieces that are smart and sophisticated, and antique tones, and large- scale wood-turned vessels but not without warmth. “It’s really hard to have two — during Sight Unseen OFFSITE. Both create beautiful works people trying to design one thing. But it’s also the best part meant to live and function in the everyday world: “He’s about it,” says Aja. dealing with wearable garments

6 7 STUDIO SAYSO CREATURES OF COMFORT

Now, for Sight Unseen OFFSITE, the duo are cementing their partner- ship with the launch of Studio Sayso, which unites Jacobsen’s product design practice with Posada’s expertise in interiors. The studio’s Collection 01, which is on view exclusively at Creatures of Comfort, features colorful tables, chairs, and lamps inspired in part by Jerico, a town out- side of Posada’s hometown in Colombia where each house is Creatures painted a different vibrant hue. “The joy you feel walking through a town like that is a feeling we wanted to translate into this collection,” Jacobsen says. (Other of Comfort influences include 1930s French and 1970s Italian design.) Conceived in New York and brought to life by Colombian fab- BY SHOKO WANGER ricators, the studio’s debut pieces PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLÉMENT PASCAL are representative of Posada and Jacobsen’s shared design interests. “Looking back at design- ers we admire and some of our

favorite pieces from the beginning of the last century, this was furniture designed to be used, to be accessible,” Posada says. She cites both Alvar Aalto and Mathieu Matégot as examples, for thoughtfully elevating an industrial material (Matégot with steel), and for a commitment to merging beauty and affordability (a key component of Aalto’s work). In their own collection, the pair were able to create pieces that can be used in a variety of set- Like many successful matches made these days, designers tings by marrying powder-coated steel frames with lacquered wood Sophie Lou Jacobsen and Sarita Posada found each other surfaces or upholstery that can be swapped out depending on the online. “We met on Craigslist,” says Jacobsen, referencing client or season. The collection’s simple forms make production a job listing Posada posted the same year Jacobsen moved adaptable and sustainable in the long run, they say, “so we imagine from London to New York. Though the job didn’t work continuing to push this collection rather than constantly designing out, a lasting impression was made ― the women became something from scratch.” friends and occasional creative collaborators.

8 9 SLASH OBJECTS RETROSUPERFUTURE

Recycled rubber is Arielle Assouline-Lichten’s muse. “It’s so high-performance and so durable, but it’s also super tactile, has this very distinct texture, and is pretty pleasing to the eye,” she explains. Since 2016, she’s been using the industrial material in inventive ways and at varying scales as Slash Objects, the product-focused offshoot of her Retrosuperfuture multidisciplinary design practice, Slash Projects. Mingled with other materials like concrete, marble, brass, and ceramic, recycled rubber takes on the domesticated feel of terrazzo in everything from side tables to vanity trays.

When charged with a takeover “Every part is manicured in a of the downtown eyewear very precise way that lends itself outpost Retrosuperfuture for to a visitor becoming a bit more Sight Unseen OFFSITE, Assouline- self-reflective,” she says. “I try to Lichten unsurprisingly called channel that in my work.” on the stone-like properties of her favorite material, sprinkling fragments of shredded tires throughout the store like peb- bles. At the shop’s entrance, a cluster of plants in rubber planters gives way to a vitrine hous-ing a collection of small mirrors and tableware among the frames on display. A trail of rubber rocks then leads the curious to the back of the store, where a trio of new pieces is on display: a mirror featuring a black marble base and a black steel frame, a collection of black rubber and concrete side tables, and a standing light sculpture. For all of its power, though, rubber is merely one inspiration point for the temporary installation. Having studied architecture in Tokyo under Toyo Ito, Assouline- Lichten also looked to Japan for cues. During her time abroad, BY BRIDGET MORIARITY she became transfixed by the PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT KROENIG famous Ryoan-ji garden in Kyoto:

10 11 LLOT LLOV ASSEMBLY NEW YORK

Design firm Llot Llov was founded in the most Berlin of Berlin ways possible: in the back seat of a taxi shuttling between nightclubs. Jacob Brinck had just thrown a party to raise funds to start a design studio, and in the cab ― sandwiched between friends in the early morning hours ― he explained to Anya Bauer his grand scheme. She immediately jumped on board, Assembly and they’ve been working together ever since.

N ew Yo r k That was twelve years ago. Since then, the studio has made a name for itself with furniture and interiors that beautifully fuse craft — knitting, macramé, natural dyeing processes — and design. This week, for Sight Unseen OFFSITE, they’re debuting two new projects at Assembly New York on the Lower East Side: A fringed pendant lamp called Fran, and the latest addi- tion to their ongoing Osis line, a range of colorful, custom- izable side tables. The lamp, made from floating tiers of streaming rayon, is one part cheerleader’s pom-pom, one part party-ready piñata. Composed of strips of fabric attached to a series of wire rings, Fran rustles and shakes in the breeze, but aesthetics weren’t the only thing on Llot Llov’s mind when devising it. “We needed to create some- thing simple enough for the production we wanted to use,” explains Brinck. To produce the lamp, they worked with Mammu, a Latvian-based social enterprise that recruits stay- at-home mothers — who other- wise wouldn’t have access to income — to craft projects from home. The tables, too, BY LAURA MAY TODD have their roots in craft. Now PHOTOGRAPHY BY ENDER SUENNI in its fifth edition, their Osis

12 13 LLOT LLOV ASSEMBLY NEW YORK

series revolves around a blurry, treatment is the star here, kaleidoscopic surface pattern with colorways — swirling shades achieved by scattering sea or of red and orange, deep teal, stone salts onto the painted pinks and blues — designed to fit surface of birch wood boards. logically alongside Llot Llov’s As it dries, the salt soaks up previous work. “With this collec- some of the liquid in the paint, tion, we really wanted to show leaving a rich gradient behind. what’s possible with this tech- With their blocky, geometric nique,” explains Brinck of the bases and removable tops, salt-dyed material. “We wanted the tables are designed to be to show how interesting it mixed and matched; each looks in different color combina- base can fit with each top or tions, and on a six-sided table be flipped over entirely for with sharp edges, it comes out use as a planter. But the surface almost psychedelic.”

14 15 JAMIE IACOLI × JOHN HOGAN SAMUJI

The last time Jamie Iacoli teamed up with glass artist John Hogan, in 2014, it was for a series of lamps and tables released under the banner of Iacoli & McAllister, the Seattle- based furniture company she was running at the time with fellow designer Brian McAllister. Iacoli’s second collaboration with Hogan ― three large tabletop sculptures on view this week at the Finnish fashion brand Samuji’s Soho flagship ― Samuji features a similar metal-meets-glass construction, yet nearly everything else has changed. Two years after McAllister departed to pursue his own work, the project serves as Iacoli’s official declaration of independence, having revised the company name to match her own and upended the nature of its business model.

Whereas Iacoli & McAllister the first time. I love having the once focused on the high-volume mental space to think about self-production of streamlined things other than, ‘It has to be tables and lighting, the new a light.’” eponymous brand will pull back That seismic shift was in a bit commercially to grant fact Hogan’s doing. In addition Iacoli more creative freedom. to helping Iacoli refine her She’ll still offer the same core initial ideas for the sculptures collection, but in tandem, for and ultimately bringing them to one, with a forthcoming jew- life, he was the one who first elry line; its metalwork and use pushed her to join him in exper- of stones were a point of imenting at the intersection inspiration for the table sculp- between art and design. “He tures, which combine rings saw an opportunity for me to of white, gray, and lavender expand my language in a way ombré glass with steel arma- that I never really thought I tures. Also influenced by the could,” she says. paintings and architecture of Ellsworth Kelly, the pieces have no real function — a major first for Iacoli. “I don’t fancy myself an artist by any means,” she says. “But I’ve been going through a lot of life changes, BY MONICA KHEMSUROV and I’m allowing myself to ILLUSTRATION BY KARMEN WHINFREY approach my work that way for

16 17 CROSBY STUDIOS OPENING CEREMONY

Opening Ceremony

BY SEAN SANTIAGO PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIPPA DRUMMOND

Color is a recurring theme in Harry Nuriev’s work. His Williamsburg apartment is famously blue; prior to that, he had what he calls “a long pink period,” best seen in the debut collection the formerly Moscow-based designer launched at Sight Unseen OFFSITE in 2016. His way with color replaces old ways of viewing space and encourages new ones; it is divisive by nature and cinematic in scope.

18 19 CROSBY STUDIOS OPENING CEREMONY

These days, he’s stuck on downtown department store featuring a hand motif; it’s purple. In March, he re-con- helmed by Humberto Leon and been reclaimed here as well textualized a childhood Carol Lim. and turned into a set of purple merry-go-round at Collective “We have a pretty similar Surrealist lamps. Design, dousing it in a vivid DNA,” says Nuriev, speaking The project marks Nuriev’s shade of eggplant and enshrin- about his company, Crosby first time working with a ing it within a wallpaper mural Studios, and the highly specific fashion brand; he brought of council flats similar to those world of Opening Ceremony. sketches and ideas to the table he grew up near in Stavropol, Both are considered sophis- but made it a priority to “blur Russia. Titled simply “My ticated luxury brands despite the boundaries between the Reality,” the piece transported a tendency toward levity and disciplines,” he says. “I tried to the viewer not didactically to eccentricity in their work. take as much as I could from his homeland, but mimetically The collection resulting from the fashion world and put it to the emotional frequency their union includes an entire into my work. We really met in on which Nuriev encounters roomscape full of purple furni- the middle.” the world. He’s working similar ture, brightly painted ceramic magic with a purple collection vessels, and even a line of he’s launching during this brushstroke-adorned bags and year’s OFFSITE in collaboration clothing. Opening Ceremony with Opening Ceremony, the once had a collection

20 21 STUDIO PROBA ROLL & HILL

It may come as a surprise that Alex Proba once planned on becoming a dentist. “As a teenager influenced by your parents, you want to pick something safe,” she laughs. That inclin- ation was short-lived, however ― Proba chose to study design instead, launching her own multidisciplinary studio in 2013. Roll & Hill Known for inventive storytelling about gold, silver, and bronze. and materials, as well as a and an explosive use of color, “Metallics can be seen as variety of pile heights. The Studio Proba often works in cheesy,” she says. “I wanted to crowning detail: silver fringe, collaboration with fellow cre- make them look elegant rather indicative of the sense of play ative powerhouses: prismatic than overdone.” To accomplish that pervades Proba’s work — wallpaper for Texturae, collage the task, Proba went for an and a fitting finishing touch for work for Loeffler Randall, and element of surprise, combining a designer who’s never played a limited-edition furniture unexpected textures, colors, it safe. collection with Bower. Among her best-known work, though, is a personal project called A Poster a Day, for which she created more than a thousand images inspired by stories submitted through her website. When Proba eventually focused her attention on rugs, those posters served as a starting point for some of her first vividly hued creations. Now, Proba is debuting a new four-piece rug concept titled Luster — blending bamboo silk, New Zealand wool, and metallic yarn — at Roll & Hill’s Mercer Street showroom. Punctuated by muted tones, the collection represents a break from her usual brights and was created in the spirit of embracing challenge. “It’s rare to find metallic yarn in rugs meant for everyday use,” she says. “It was interesting to introduce it into a medium where it doesn’t belong.” Despite the practical hardships — in early trials, for instance, the gold flaked when the yarn was cut — Proba was BY SHOKO WANGER inspired to revisit the ways ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALEX PROBA in which we normally think

22 23 DOWEL JONES × TOM HANCOCKS COMING SOON

Coming Soon

BY SEAN SANTIAGO RENDERING BY TOM HANCOCKS

The Australian design brand Dowel Jones excels at Instagram, and no wonder ― alongside the usual images of work installed in of-the-moment interiors, or furniture photographed against color-blocked backdrops, they’ve been known to publish campaign images by 3-D artist and designer Tom Hancocks, whose renderings offer an ambiguous sense of space. The effect is a seemingly borderless world in which good design transcends the limitations of place and enters the collective consciousness via social media.

24 25 DOWEL JONES × TOM HANCOCKS COMING SOON

If that sounds a bit trippy, something, and a confidence quite straight-on and understand DALE: There’s a lot of con- brace yourself for the pair’s that comes from knowing a little them; he’s also the maker versation about the Australian collaborative installation in the bit more than I did when I was between the two of us, whereas aesthetic, but I don’t think I’ve basement of Helena Barquet just putting shapes together in I float and dream a little more. got the time to answer that and Fabiana Faria’s Lower East a 3-D program. We wanted to see an entirely diff- question. Side boutique, Coming Soon: erent perspective on what our The room has been reimagined DALE: That’s interesting because brand could be. You were an TOM: Well, then, to what as “Lobby,” a multi-sensory I studied furniture and yet I interesting choice in that you’re extent do you feel like you showcase for Hancocks’s debut also never learned how to make based in New York. We thought represent Australia in your collection of chairs for Dowel it. Maybe that’s where we’re it would be interesting to work design? Jones. “The title refers to the similar, being a bit outside our with someone outside the space serving as a transition discipline. What is it about Australian design community. DALE: That might be a little between the physical and digi- furniture that interests you as too hard, too. The reason I tal environment,” notes Dowel a typology? TOM: Would you say that don’t want to answer these Jones designer Dale Hardiman. commercial viability impacts questions is because there “Although we’re showing the TOM: I have an interest in your design decisions? are indigenous Australians. I’m chairs in the physical space, that things that are sculptural, and third generation in Australia. experience will also be medi- if you’re going to commodify DALE: Our commercial work I’m Irish Maltese. I can’t really ated through VR technology. something, furniture is the most is what gives us capital to say I represent Australian We wanted what was designed direct translation that also has produce more limited-edition design when indigenous in the digital medium to be a kind of human connection. works. For instance, for Milan Australians are the oldest presented almost identically in last month, we produced this civilization on the planet. the physical realm.” DALE: I often meet graphic tattooed cabinet, and we’ve The chairs — upholstered designers who want to move into only ever made one incredibly cushions on frames of tubular jewelry in order to produce expensive, laborious one. But steel — are of a piece with more tangible work. Did you those projects are really about the global design vernacular, feel this way about your shift learning — not just learning while elaborating on shape into furniture? about making but learning and scale in ways Hancocks about process, and about who had previously only explored TOM: Extremely. There’s this we are as designers and virtually. Here, Hardiman desire to finally have something what we’re interested in. If we and Hancocks speak about the real to experience. were to stick to that model collection, their processes, of commercial furniture, it and the not-so-vast divide DALE: How did you land on the would be hugely repetitive. between the digital and physical. lobby theme? TOM: What’s your biggest crit- DALE HARDIMAN: Being a TOM: I think a lobby is exciting ique of contemporary furniture 3-D designer is a relatively new in its banality. It’s an environ- design? thing. What training did you ment that’s completely appro- undertake — if at all? priate for furniture but you’re DALE: Well, because we are not trying too hard with it. teachers as well, I can reflect TOM HANCOCKS: I didn’t go on the experience of trying to school for anything. When DALE: It’s an in-between space, to teach the next generation I was younger, I messed around where people spend time of designers as well as being a lot in 3-D programs, and waiting for something else — so part of the next generation of through a serendipitous maybe they’re not even aware designers. My advice is don’t Instagram situation, I ended up of what they’re sitting on. get too consumed by the grat- with a job as an interior architect. ification of social media. We’re TOM: True. This is the first time seeing a lot of inexperienced DALE: With no formal training, you’ve had someone else design designers produce work that do you feel confident in the for Dowel Jones. What was your has gotten great attention, work you produce? take on the experience? but they haven’t been able to follow through. TOM: There’s a confidence that DALE: Adam, my business part- comes from being an outsider ner, is the more rational-minded TOM: Do you think Australia and feeling like you’ve infiltrated one in that he can see things lacks its own style in design?

26 27 FURNISHING UTOPIA DESIGN WITHIN REACH

When the exhibition Furnishing Utopia debuted at Sight Unseen OFFSITE two years ago, it followed a relatively strict set of parameters: 11 international designers would spend a week at two Shaker sites in New York and Massachusetts, engaging in an intensive workshop yielding new furniture and objects directly inspired by artifacts from those sites. Design Last year, a follow-up exhibition traced a similar path. But the third exhibition in the series ― debuting this week at a pop-up space hosted by Design Within Reach in Soho ― Within Reach examines the impact of the Shakers on contemporary design in a much more conceptual way: Called Hands to Work, it features objects by more than 25 studios, each meditating on contemporary attitudes towards everyday chores.

BY JILL SINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE SCHUCK

28 29 FURNISHING UTOPIA DESIGN WITHIN REACH

“When John and Wonhee of Studio Gorm started this project, they were looking at design philosophies that carry through Japanese, Scandinavian, and Shaker cultures,” explains Jean Lee of Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, who now helps direct and curate the project along with Studio Gorm, designer Chris Specce, and her L&G co-founder Dylan. “This year, we didn’t want to repeat the idea of designing in response to the Shaker aes- thetic. We wanted to look more deeply into universal Shaker values, which celebrated the mundane activities that are very much a part of our connection to objects and to the world.” Raking leaves, dusting, chopping firewood, washing the dishes — these are typically viewed as tedious, burdensome tasks. But Hands to Work lends credence to the idea that a well-designed object can make everyday work a more mindful, ritualistic activity. The exhibition features contemporary takes on towel holders, watering cans, levels, dish caddies, pencil sharpeners, clothespins, laundry racks, and shovels, among others. In addition, an interactive visual and sound component challenges visitors to more deeply consider the sensorial satisfaction of using common tools, with areas where they can rake sand, shovel dirt, and crush foam. Think of it as a form of stress relief — visitors “are allowed to make a mess,” laughs Lee, “but then they have to clean it up.”

30 31 GRAIN THE PRIMARY ESSENTIALS

To create their textile pieces, the Seattle-based studio Grain used to travel all the way to Guatemala, working with artisans in the country where founders James and Chelsea Minola first met and fell in love.

But over the past few years, of fabric or leftover yarn by patterns of harvested land- The Primary the designers have begun early settlers,” says Chelsea. scapes, came to mind as we sourcing producers a bit closer The original idea for the started to piece our final to home: Their Lands Rug, rugs came to the pair after a shapes together.” a custom version of which 2016 residency in the Wallowa For the different shapes they’re debuting at The Primary Mountains in Northeastern that comprise each rug, Grain Essentials Essentials in Manhattan this Oregon. “We did some hiking in designs large templates that week, is woven by a 30-year- the grasslands of the amazing the mill uses as a guide to cut old textile mill near their alma Zumwalt Prairie, cutting each segment and then piece mater, RISD. Inspired by aerial through waist-high trails, them back together, creating landscapes and crop circles, and began thinking about the a collage-like effect. At The each rug is made from braids patterning of large land areas Primary Essentials, a six-by- of un-dyed Canadian wool that such as farms and prairies,” nine chocolate-and-cream are stitched together, a con- says Chelsea. “Specific version will blanket an entire struction technique “based on features such as the arcs and wall until the end of June, a early American colonial rugs, circles created by central pivot slice of rural America in the which were made from scraps irrigation, and the alternating middle of the big city.

BY JILL SINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE SCHUCK

32 33 THE PRINCIPALS SATURDAYS NYC

In the backyard of the Soho surf shop Saturdays NYC, Brooklyn design studio The Principals are exploring the border between the physical and sacred worlds.

For an installation called Golden Arch, they’ve installed an 8-foot- tall triangular wave structure Saturdays made from the studio’s mod- ular, stackable Prism Planters. Spanning the garden from north to south, it symbolizes the emer- gence of the sun, moon, and stars NYC from what Australian aboriginal cultures call “dreamtime” — the period during which the universe was created — into the physical world. The project’s configuration and subject matter are new, but the geometry of the planter’s modular unit has become something of a calling card for the firm, forming the basis for everything from immersive architectural sound- scapes for Ford to an upcoming public sculpture in Brooklyn’s Starlight Park. The inspiration for it struck while Principals co-founder Drew Seskunas was visiting his parents in his hometown of Baltimore, when he happened upon a cracked and worn-down sculpture by Norman Carlberg — an artist, teacher, and member of the Modular Constructivist movement — in front of a local high school. “There was a lot of overlap between what the Modular Constructivists and I had been doing, like playing with sculptural modularity and part-to-whole relationships,” says Seskunas. After the Ford project, he says, “I wanted to push it further, to try to find more func- tional applications.” The modules became planters, and the planters became structures, which will BY LAURA MAY TODD be on view at Saturdays NYC PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA ROBBS through May 20.

34 35 GIANCARLO VALLE × VISO PROJECT VISO

Something can really only make sense if it’s next to something else.

You’ve been able to reinvent similar forms fairly substantially simply by switching out materials. How have you come to the mate- rials palette you’re using?

I’m obsessed with upholstery and fabrics at the moment, mainly because they’re so VISO foreign to the palette of stone, wood, and concrete that makes up the vast majority of the BY DREW ZEIBA architecture we create. We’re also beginning to experiment with straw marquetry and eggshell and some of the crafts of the 1920s and ’30s — taking these serious decorative art techniques and applying them For Sight Unseen OFFSITE, I started to seriously think in new, more playful ways. Valle continues to present in about it when I began renovat- this syncretic vein. In Tribeca, ing my own home. It was quite It seems like historical Valle is collaborating with naïve at first, researching design has a big impact on Viso Project, a new, sustain- and trying to find special pieces your practice. ability-focused textile studio. that spoke to me. Then having For Valle’s Smile Seats, Viso the opportunity to put it History is critical. Design has a provided a jacquard-loom together in a space for the first historical arc, and I love tracing cotton upholstery fabric in a time and create an immers- that arc, whether it’s in archi- pattern of decisive geometry ive interior that was conceived tecture, interiors, or furniture. I Giancarlo Valle didn’t set out to design furniture. A trained and humorous blobs; the of from the architecture love the stories behind the work. space will include more of down to the decor was very There’s a thought that the architect, his practice moved first indoors to interiors, Valle’s furniture alongside rewarding. Doing architec- ideas of design do not belong objects from Viso’s collections, ture exclusively felt limiting; it to any individual person, but then even further to the things that fill them. An interest in including porcelain vases with wasn’t until we started com- that they’re part of a much larger Kama Sutra–inspired patterns, pleting our first interiors that history of their own — that objects initially manifested in the collecting of furniture mohair blankets, and cotton we began to see the bigger our ideas are floating in the air tapestries. We sat down with picture and how it all can fit and are available to anyone. from across eras, the inventory from which has cropped up Valle to discuss what it takes together. I love this way of thinking, to make spaces and how he’s especially in today’s culture of in his designs for Phillip Lim, Thakoon, and Marilyn Minter. always melding the past with How do the pieces you sharing and social media. But soon, collecting wasn’t enough: At Collective Design, the present. create fit together? It’s liberating. You began your career as The highest compliment would he debuted his first series of furniture in a holistic installation an architect. What inspired be for people to think my work the move to furniture? was conceived of by different that saw his own highly personal pieces alongside histor- minds. I think design at its best I can’t see architecture and is a conversation between ical ones, such as an alabaster and silver Genet & Michon furniture design as two objects and styles, between separate fields. My interest in objects and spaces, and between lamp, as well as contemporary collaborations, including a furniture and decorative spaces and buildings. So much arts came out of an obses- of it has to do with memory, and lamp designed with Ladies & Gentlemen Studio. sion with collecting things, but how something makes you feel.

36 37 201 Mulberry Show Guide

38 39 201 MULBERRY Field Studies

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN ARNOLD FOR 1STDIBS

Before this year, the actor Seth Rogen had never designed anything, having been too busy making movies about weed dealers, nerds, and superheroes. Yet he loves Danish modern furniture, and can fondly recall the textures on the walls and rugs of the sets from his favorite ’80s and ’90s movies. Those details ― plus an affinity for street art ― came in handy this spring, when Rogen was called upon to actually create an object, in collaboration with the New York design studio Bower: a massive painted trompe l’oeil mirror, borne of a phone call and a studio visit exploring the overlap between the pair’s respective creative visions. Could anything sound as sweet, from the perspective of two curators who have long been obsessed with cross-disciplinary pollination?

40 41 FIELD STUDIES 201 MULBERRY

Since we started Sight Unseen pair’s choosing.) The pieces nine years ago, we’ve found include a pastel pianet by Los ourselves writing again and Angeles interiors firm Wall again about the fertile ground For Apricots and actor Jason between creative fields. So it Schwartzman (at right), a wasn’t much of a leap from synesthetic 3-D printer by The there to Field Studies, the Principals and singer Angel flagship exhibition in our 2018 Olsen, and an upholstered Sight Unseen OFFSITE show, armchair by Kelly Behun and for which that mirror was fashion designer Narciso made. After wondering one Rodriguez. day about how to involve our Field Studies is the first exhi- friends from the worlds of food, bition you see when you walk fashion, film, art, and music into our hub, but so pleased in our design week activities, were we with the premise we realized how epic it might that we decided, this year, to be to pair each of them with extend it through each show a designer to collaborate on a in the space. The nine other functional object; six months curatorial projects you’ll find later, 13 of those objects both there and in the following are now on view at our 201 pages all share a common Mulberry hub space. (They’re theme of creative collaboration also available for sale on — which, come to think of it, 1stdibs.com, with net proceeds is something the two of us do going to a charity of each every day.

— Jill Singer and Monica Khemsurov, Sight Unseen founders

BOWER × SETH ROGEN CHRISTOPHER STUART × JULIA DAULT FERNANDO MASTRANGELO × BOYD HOLBROOK HARRY NURIEV × LIAM GILLICK HOME STUDIOS × NATASHA ROYT KELLY BEHUN × NARCISO RODRIGUEZ KELLY WEARSTLER × AIMEE SONG LADIES & GENTLEMEN STUDIO × KAAREM RAFAEL DE CÁRDENAS × MEL OTTENBERG THADDEUS WOLFE × IGNACIO MATTOS THE PRINCIPALS × ANGEL OLSEN TYLER HAYS × ANDREW KUO WALL FOR APRICOTS × JASON SCHWARTZMAN

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BY DEBORAH SHAPIRO PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAGGIE SHANNON

For their installation at Sight Unseen OFFSITE, sisters Lily and Hopie Stockman ― the duo behind the textile line Block Shop ― are drawing inspiration from their own studio, high up in a historic bank building in downtown Los Angeles. “Our studio is filled with rugs and pillows and dogs and books and other human beings coming and going. We wanted to recreate that in New York,” says Hopie.

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Voracious, eclectic readers, the they say, while continuing to by LA’s Everybody.World, it’s Stockman sisters have envi- draw on the vocabulary of Sol a roomy bag that “fits your sioned the project as a reading LeWitt’s wall drawings, Anni Macbook Air, the complete room — a contemplative and Albers’s weavings, and their works of Jane Bowles, a New comfortable nook where visit- personal and professional con- Yorker, and snacks,” says ors are welcome to “plop nection to India, where all of Hopie. Perfect for readers on down on something soft,” as the studio’s textiles are produc- the go. Hopie puts it, and linger. ed. When designing the rugs, “In our digital world it takes the pair created watercolor extra discipline — for us at sketches of architectural least — to set aside that quiet details in Art Deco apartment time to do the simplest thing: buildings lining Shivaji Park sit down and read the print- in Mumbai, then gave them ed word. Our reading room to a team of master weavers is an invitation to do just that.” outside Jaipur to translate into The star of the installation hand-dyed cotton and wool. is a brand-new rug series. It In addition to the rugs, the channels, in part, the minimal- duo are currently working ist-but-warm paintings and on more than a dozen projects, sculptures of artist and writer including artwork in hotels, Anne Truitt, especially “the way retail space installations, and she thought about color as a restaurants, as well as colored living thing,” says Hopie. “In paper prints and upholstery her world, color is directional, fabric they’ll launch this fall. it inspires felicity, it lies down, They’ve also designed a limited- it dances.” Block Shop’s new edition zippered tote, launch- work sees the sisters taking ing this week as well: Constructed more risks with color than ever, from recycled cotton scraps

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Lily and Hopie Stockman’s Book Recommendations:

“Powers of Two by Joshua Wolf Shank explains the force “The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton: The driving some of the world’s most inspiring and accom- original interior design tome was written in 1897 and plished humans (hint: partnership). If you work with a is still essential reading for the design-minded. partner in any capacity, read it.” Edith Wharton’s tenets of interior design are based on

— HOPIE architectural principles, simplicity, and practicality.”

— HOPIE “How to See by David Salle. David was a mentor in grad “A Roomful of Hovings by John McPhee. Hopie and I school, and his essays on everyone from Dana Schutz and our two other sisters grew up in a McPhee house- to Guston are a window into his elegant sensibility. hold, and these profiles and essays from 1979 are peak Although I don’t always agree with him, it’s a provocative McPhee. I gave this book to a friend who is opening inquiry into What Makes Great Art.” a new gallery in New York as a ‘Go get ‘em’ present.” — LILY — LILY

“Little Labors by Rivka Galchen is a strange, brilliant little book for anyone flummoxed by the first few months of caring for a new human while trying to make art/write/design.”

— LILY

“Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s a dark and sublime horror story/fairy tale about the female experience.”

— HOPIE

48 49 201 MULBERRY Vonne gut/ Kraft × Slow and Steady Wins the Race FOR WEFT

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When a textile has a pattern woven into it rather than just What’s interesting, though, it particularly useful? This KATRINA: Probably the Transat is that the furniture was collaboration will be our first Chair by Eileen Gray (1927). printed onto its surface, it gains a unique property: It’s equally essentially designed in reverse use of textiles in furniture. It features such a balanced as well. Ping — who designs What was the first upholstered integration of the connection visually interesting on both sides. That was the first element fashion and jewelry under her piece you designed with Brian? hardware with its structural own name, and accessories members, and such style in fashion designer Mary Ping and furniture studio Vonnegut/Kraft and objects as Slow and Steady KATRINA: Our Crescent its detailing. While one might Wins the Race — initially con- Lounge. The upholstery on the argue that the width and seized upon when they teamed up to work with the new nected with longtime friends piece is very geometric. We ergonomics of its slung lounge Katrina Vonnegut and Brian knew we wanted elements that seat seem like they ought to textile start-up Weft ― which offers users the ability to design Kraft on the idea of camp would compliment the geome- evolve towards a more demo- furniture as a way to create a try of both the wood frame and cratic proportion, the geometry jacquard fabrics online and order them on demand ― and it collection that highlighted tex- the upholstered cushions. and resolution of its profile are tiles. But, Vonnegut explains, undeniable. Is there an object inspired their collaboration in more ways than one. The most “As the project progressed, MARY: Do either of you know that you often return to for we decided that the furniture how to weave? inspiration? obvious way is that at Sight Unseen OFFSITE, they’re exhib- forms should be a response to the geometry and tonality in KATRINA: No, but I’ve been MARY: Anything by Achille iting the furniture they created using Weft textiles in a sort the textiles, rather than vice around a lot of expert weav- Castiglioni, because he always versa. It’s the opposite of how ers and understand woven honored items that had an of mirror-image configuration, with one piece upholstered using upholstery is typically used.” construction. I have a lot of everyday purpose. If you could Sharing references like Josef experience creating textiles choose anyone in time and in the front side of each fabric they designed, and an identical Albers and transparency, the with machine knitting, though the world, which five people trio used Weft’s online tools I guess that’s different! How would you invite to dinner? piece upholstered using its reverse. to create fabrics with strong does furniture relate to your geometries that shift subtly practice? BRIAN: Aristotle, Shakespeare, in color throughout, before Gena Rowlands, Randy following those geometries MARY: The studio is con- Newman, and Steve Coogan. BY MONICA KHEMSUROV to create a bench, stool, and stantly making objects, from PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIPPA DRUMMOND ottoman. “We all felt that more sunglasses to shoes, so furn- KATRINA: Mary Shelley, STYLING BY GOZDE EKER linear pieces — paired with a iture is just an extension of Rudolph Steiner, Jane minimal color palette — would that daily practice. It’s a deeper Campion, Rachel Carson, and be the most elegant union and more expansive explor- Eileen Gray. You? between the act of traditional ation of utility in other formats. weaving and the modernized The things we put on our body MARY: Joe Cesare Colombo, digital capabilities of Weft,” can easily relate to the things Katherine Hepburn, says Ping. The resulting collec- we surround our body with. Martin Balsam, Robert Bresson, tion showcases the designers’ and Oprah. shared interest in materiality KATRINA: What’s the most and in practical design solu- important thing you think a tions; we asked them to have a good design accomplishes? conversation about what else informed their collaboration. MARY: Good design can carve out its own temporal dimen- KATRINA VONNEGUT: sion. Even an ordinary thing, How have you integrated if designed well, can have an woven textiles into your work umami-like sensory experience in the past? that makes it feel like it can exist beyond its time. We believe MARY PING: We work with tremendously in longevity. woven textiles all the time Longevity means durability, and for Slow and Steady Wins the long-lasting consistency, and Race, especially with bags. it’s all-inclusive in its thinking It naturally falls into our con- and application. What’s the sideration of materiality: How one piece of furniture in history is the fabric seen and why is you wish you had designed?

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BY MONICA KHEMSUROV

Originally founded by two fashion designers as an accessories brand in 2010, New York’s Cold Picnic had its official break- out moment five years later, when it released an irreverent series of rugs and bathmats featuring reductive drawings of boobs and other “Private Parts,” which circulated far and wide both on the Internet and in boutiques across the country. But rather than letting that particular success define them, founders Phoebe Sung and Peter Buer instead returned to a subtler approach, creating carpets inspired by their favorite pastime: watching movies. In the past, they’ve abstracted stills from Antonioni and Fassbinder into striking compositions of color and geometry; they turned to the films of Tunisian director Nacer Khemir for the visual cues behind their newest collection ― Desert Trilogy ― which launches this week at OFFSITE with the support of Levi’s Made and Crafted.

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This is your third rug col- why. We both thought Three into the computer. I can do lection inspired by film. Why Women would be a no-brainer. that sometimes, but when I do films make good rugs? So we have to branch out and feel stuck I may paint or make in the process end up discover- collages to see what happens. PETER: When we were design- ing a lot of new films we love. We scan and convert every- ing accessories, we used to When we created our thing we like into Photoshop so look at old books on nature Interiors collection, based we can play with different color or old textiles. But when we on films by Werner Rainer combinations. We don’t take started making rugs, it felt too Fassbinder, it was our first time color directly from the films — direct to look at textiles and seeing those films. They take the whole process works best then go design one. We’ve both place almost exclusively inside when we let the films make us always been into movies, and — you’re staring at people’s aware of certain colors, or a I think the reason we draw so faces and their apartments, way of using colors. It’s almost much of our inspiration from which is exactly what we like we force memories into them is because when you were doing at the time, since ourselves and then use them to watch one you connect with, it was just after the presi- create the collections. you go through an entire expe- dential election and we were rience. That feels like a richer depressed and holed up. The What are your three favor- starting point. Fassbinder films were all so ite Khemir films, and why? satisfyingly melodramatic, and Why does the desert make he mixes hard and soft colors PHOEBE: We’ve only seen good rugs? in such unexpected, effortless three of them! They make up ways. When it came time to Khemir’s Desert Trilogy, which PETER: It’s the most un-land- design, we still felt like we were we named the collection after. scape of all the landscapes. We designing landscapes. To us Wanderers of the Desert is both love to design landscapes, they were just landscapes of about a village in the desert but we have an aversion to interior spaces. that might not really exist, a recognizable ones. With the The main things we look for gang of children led by a genie desert, you get to convey the are unexpected color combi- who lives in a well, a magic sense of being in a place, but nations and a specific, almost ship, a curse, buried treasure, you also can’t be sure it’s a painterly way of composing the and a mysterious group of wan- place. It could be anything or scenes. We take loads and loads derers looking for heaven. It’s anywhere. And deserts feel of stills, often from several mov- nuts! The Dove’s Lost Necklace endless. The sand is almost the ies, and print them out and look is just as beautiful, and sad. color of a blank sheet of paper. at them while we’re designing. What makes it great are the It’s like a starting point where stunning medieval Andalusian you then get to decide what to Do you ever put the actual setting, the music, and the focus on or bring out. film still in Photoshop? colors. Bab’Aziz: The Prince Or is your process totally Who Contemplated His Soul What can you say about interpretive? is the only one of the three your process of abstract- set in modern times, and it’s ing a film scene down to a PHOEBE: Once or twice we’ve less dreamy than the previous rug motif? designed straight over the film two. It’s a road movie — on foot stills. Actually, those are the across the desert — crossed PHOEBE: We never know what most abstract rugs. Man in with a folk tale. we’re going for until we’re Shower, for example, started I don’t think I’ve ever seen there. After the Passenger out traced; the stills we pull are another filmmaker use color collection, which was the super low-res, and this one was the same way. Khemir uses first collection based directly of a very cluttered bathroom. every combination you can on a film (The Passenger by We looked for things like nega- think of, but they always look Michelangelo Antonioni), we tive space, shadows, highlights, like his. kept watching movies we loved bits of color, and pulled those and trying to force them into out. But mostly we pore over the next collection. But that the stills and rewatch the mov- rarely works. Robert Altman ies, and then we sketch on our hasn’t worked, and I don’t know own. Peter sketches straight

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“My house is my refuge, an emotional piece of architecture and not a cold piece of convenience,” the architect Luis Moving Barragán once said. According to Moving Mountains studio founder Syrette Lew, this sentiment perfectly captures the spirit of her new collection of chairs and lights ― the latter Mountains designed in collaboration with ceramicist Giselle Hicks. The installation is loosely based on the color palettes and surroundings Lew encountered on a recent trip to Barragán’s × native Mexico. Giselle Hicks FOR LEVI'S MADE & CRAFTED

BY BRIDGET MORIARITY PHOTOGRAPHY BY SEAN SANTIAGO

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Visually speaking, the influence of Lew’s travels brings a sense of the past to Moving Mountains’s decid- edly of-the-moment aesthetic: the lounge chairs in medium-tone woods with white upholstery, the handmade ceramics. “I wasn’t consciously wanting the installa- tion to feel retro, but because the inspiration is coming from Mexico City, Oaxaca, and the architecture and interiors of Barragán, it maybe leans that way,” says Lew. Colorado-based Hicks — who designed and crafted the vessels that form the bases of Lew’s lamps — is similarly influenced by history, citing ancient Greek and Chinese vessels as source mate- rial for her practice, as well as the work of mid-century potters like Lucie Rie and Ruth Duckworth. She brought some of those references to the lamps, forming terracotta clay into shapes that are simple and sculptural; some are fluted, others are round or columnal. The pieces are made using what Hicks refers to as “the most fundamental technique ever” — coil and pinch — allowing her to achieve a heightened sense of immediacy. “This was an assignment to make something with as few tools as possible,” she explains. The results look effortless, but there was a significant learning curve to the collaboration, which was executed completely digitally — Lew had been determined to work with Hicks ever since she spotted her on Instagram a few years back, but at press time, the pair had yet to set foot in the same room. “Syrette drew very detailed renderings that specified that the opening at the top of the vessels should be something like 4.771 inches, and I was like ‘Lady, you know these are hand-made,’” says Hicks. The artistic compro- mise? Hicks standardized the opening at the bottom. “It never got to the point of being not fun,” she says with relief.

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TEKLA EVELINA SEVERIN

The Stockholm-based photogra- pher and multidisciplinary designer — known for her colorful, graphic Twyla Instagram feed — works with cli- ents such as Levi’s, New Tendency, Muuto, The Gourmand, and Oak the Nordic Journal on projects BY THE EDITORS including photography, set design, creative direction, exhibition design, and other color-related If you visited Sight Unseen OFFSITE last year, chances are commissions. you didn’t miss the presentation by Twyla, the Austin- “At Ricardo Bofill’s iconic laby- rinth building Muralla Roja, I took based online purveyor of limited-edition prints: Just a series of photos interpreting the architecture itself. But here inside the entrance to the show, seven artworks hung on I wanted to turn the lens in the opposite direction: to the sea, a wall, accompanied by seven virtual-reality headsets where you see only a hint of the building. This photo says a lot that transported visitors to imaginary 360-degree rooms about Bofill’s inspiration and use of color; the building was inspired by created by 3-D artist Tom Hancocks. The project perfectly the Mediterranean tradition of the casbah, with the purpose of con- illustrated how great art could inspire a great interior. trasting nature and the outside.”

FLORA AND FORM Now the brand is hoping to pro- vide not only the inspiration, but Flora and Form is a multidisci- the decor itself. This week marks plinary studio with a focus on the launch of Ratio, Twyla’s painting and ceramics, led by artist first-ever, limited-edition line of Danielle Romero. The inspiration luxury wall coverings, with the behind Romero’s work is rooted in first four patterns curated by nature and its various forms, col- Sight Unseen. Aiming to highlight ors, and textures. More recently, Twyla’s ability to capture min- architecture and design have ute texture and detail, we asked begun to inspire her work, spe- four of our favorite architectural cifically the relationship between photographers to lend us a sin- human habitation and the natural gle image — each now available environment. among Twyla’s online art offerings — and then invited four artists to “The first thing that grabbed my create paintings loosely inspired attention in Tekla’s photograph by their use of shadow, color, was the piercing blue ocean inside line, or shape. The paintings were that very linear frame. I was imme- then digitally scanned and manip- diately drawn to the juxtaposition ulated by Twyla to create the of the hard lines of the open- mural-style and repeat wallpa- ing and the organic flowing form pers that are on view at our hub contained within it. It was inter- space — no headsets necessary. esting to see this expansive body We spoke with each of the eight restricted to a specific shape, participants to get their perspec- and I knew I wanted to attempt to tive on the project. translate that in the final piece.”

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MATTHIEU VENOT VISHAL MARAPON

Matthieu Venot is a French artist Vishal Marapon is a Vancouver- whose images capture the urban based photographer who environment. Focusing on the shoots commercial and editorial part rather than the whole, his photography. His work has been photographs abstract his sur- featured in The New Yorker, Elle, roundings into colorful graphical and Kinfolk, among others. vistas, turning the quotidian into the iconic. “This photo was taken in Los Angeles. I was there for a visit “I took this image in the spring of working on a personal project 2017, in the south of France, that explored the culture of the near the city of Bordeaux. I like city, and touched on colors and how the colors work perfectly shapes that often find echoes together, and the fact that it in my contemporary practice. seems like a stair to nowhere.” Part of my process is trusting my intuition, and this image was an example of something just HOLLISTER HOVEY catching my eye in the moment.”

While working for years in health- care journalism and PR, Hollister JESSALYN BROOKS Hovey found a creative release in painting. “My art was always Jessalyn Brooks spent a decade about creating an aesthetic that in Detroit, studying music and would make rooms come alive. dance, playing jazz and writing It’s a practical, design-focused music, before moving to Los view — and a fine-art gallerist’s Angeles a few years ago to nightmare,” she says. After years perform in a cabaret show — and of experimenting with decor in ended up staying. After dabbling the apartment she shares with a bit in retail, Brooks turned to her sister, the two started an painting, which is now her full- interiors-staging firm called Hovey time work. Design, for which Hollister creates much of the abstract “I chose this particular image acrylic art. because of the colors. Living in Los Angeles, I’m inspired by the “In Matthieu’s photo, I loved way the sun bleaches exterior the Art Deco colors and geomet- paints — something I found in ric lines that convey architec- Vishal’s photo (which I didn’t tural detail but could easily be an know at the time was taken in abstract painting. The greens LA!). I try to capture colors that and pinks feel so current and fresh. fall just in between the obvious When looking at all of his images colors — the grays, the browns, together, you’re transported the greens. I saw those colors to a surreal, sherbet-drenched in Vishal’s image and wanted to dream world.” translate them.”

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CLEMENTE VERGARA there’s a conversation between emptiness and fullness, stillness Barcelona-based Vergara came and movement. I’m trying to photography only a few years to portray the visible and ago; having studied environ- invisible landscapes of place mental engineering, he works by and connection.” day as a sustainable develop- ment project manager for a water management company. His images — all minimalism, primary geometry, and soft colors — are often meticulously researched in advance, he says, but “I prefer to remain an amateur. Because I don’t see photography as a job, I can be more relaxed when shooting.”

“This photo is of a building designed by the architecture firm MAIO Architects. Shooting famous buildings makes me happy, but what I enjoy the most is when I shoot a more modest or unknown building and succeed in extracting some otherworldly moment.”

KARINA BANIA

Karina Bania is a mixed-media painter whose work focuses on landscapes, geography, and space. Her paintings feature pale hues and layers of subtle texture, often incorporating traditional pigments and dyes in stains and washes. Focused on the harmony between spon- taneity and intention, each discrete shape forces a conver- sation between the visible and unseen. Bania is based between San Diego and Baja, Mexico.

“The photograph I chose had such striking angles and shapes, but also a softness radiating from the play of light. I could envision it as a paint- ing the moment I saw it. My paintings explore the abstract geographies that we navigate in our lives. In each painting,

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Upon the launch of Kim Markel’s first collection in 2016 ― which recycled the plastic waste of old eyeglasses and Kim Markel lunch trays into translucent, popsicle-hued furniture ― FOR GLOSSIER Curbed declared her a designer who had figured out “how to make new pieces and not feel guilty about it.” But Markel’s practice isn’t so much about assuaging late capitalist guilt as it is about asserting the need for a new kind of industry, one that isn’t defined by inputs and outputs so much as a continuous, self-sustaining cycle. Adios, obsolescence.

Based in Beacon, New York, Markel’s new partnership with lathe. Of the aesthetic that Markel’s previous life as a public beauty brand Glossier, launch- drove the pieces, Markel says, policy wonk equipped her ing at Sight Unseen OFFSITE, “I often reference things that with an unexpectedly pliable set is a perfect expression of that harbored magic as a child — of skills: She excels at mini- passion for marrying sustain- Jelly shoes, lollipops at the mizing waste through smart ability and style. The courtship bank, the splay of Bambi’s legs resource management. A self- started as any might these as he stands. This collection is professed autodidact, Markel days, when Markel slid into the made for an unapologetically found her way into furniture brand’s direct messages on gauzy Petra Collins world, design as a project manager at Instagram. That note led to a where everything has a perma- the legendary Polich Tallix coffee date, which led to a new nent filter of childhood magic foundry in the Hudson Valley series of translucent colored over it.” A nostalgic way of (which fabricates work for Jeff furniture pieces in reclaimed thinking meets a modern way Koons and Matthew Barney, plastic composed partly of of working, paving the way to among others). At the begining Glossier’s pink-hued packag- a brighter (or at least faintly she felt “in the dark” about ing empties, which the brand glowing) future. most things, but clocked in asked its employees to collect early and stayed late to learn for months. “The packaging is the basic techniques she broken down and bonded with would need to develop her own other plastics in large molds, design practice. then cured and sanded until an That first collection, Glow, imperfect, slightly dissolved, saw her marrying her newfound candy-like effect is achieved,” strengths with those left over says Markel. “It takes over 50 from her previous profession. jars to make a single chair.” She now thinks of her work, she The collection includes a cabi- says, “as an evolving conversa- net, chairs, side tables, and tion between ideas, technique, mirrors, as well as a vanity table and materiality: an idea for an made from spun stone dust, a object, the development of a new material Markel developed unique technique to make it, and using a by-product of the then creating a material for it. All quarrying process. The material three pieces of the puzzle evolve solidifies quickly, so the pieces BY SEAN SANTIAGO as they inform one another.” are formed intuitively, on a

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GOBLIN SERIES by Hun Seung Lee

Inspired by supernatural beings from Japanese folklore, the School of the Goblin Series is a collection of pitchers and cups that explores ideas about texture and balance. Each piece began as a molded, slip-cast porcelain form that was then modified by hand, either through hand-building, deforma- Art Institute tion, or the addition of texture — including dots that were applied one by one with a syringe. “There’s a symbiotic relationship here between the pitcher and the cup,” says Oyler. “The cup can’t stand on its own; you’d have to drink of Chicago the whole thing at once.”

BY JILL SINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN ALLEN

As a young, independent designer, how do you present your work to the public? In most cases, it’s a skill that’s learned CONGLOMERATE SERIES by trial and error, but at the School of the Art Institute by Kevin Solis of Chicago, it’s something that’s beginning to be taught. This project began with a reeval- uation of traditional ceramic processes, with the goal of creating a new porcelain-based composite material. “This was a relatively experimental process in This year, two recently famous learning everything from basic a conceptual framework.” that all of those specks are dyed American designers themselves slip-casting to cold-working. The final exhibition shows 15 slip that the designer has crum- — Pete Oyler of Assembly Design Spring was devoted to the more interpretations of the drinkware bled up and incorporated into and Jonah Takagi of Atelier logistical aspects of building theme, including a multipronged a clay body,” says Oyler. After Takagi — launched an intensive a practice, including how to straw that was inspired by the pieces are fired, each one is studio class in the Designed prepare work for a photo shoot, the aqueduct system in the subject to various methods of Objects program, aimed at taking how to create branding ele- designer’s hometown of Oaxaca. machining and boring to create students on a holistic journey ments like an Instagram feed, “We asked the students to be different surface textures. from concept to exhibition, with and how to design and put on very thoughtful about how they the ultimate goal being a show- an exhibition within the context were presenting and crafting case of ceramic drinkware. of New York Design Week. “On their narrative about this work,” The results are on view at this the one hand,” says Oyler, Oyler says. Here are five of our week’s Sight Unseen OFFSITE. “the course was about learning favorites. The participants, a mix the technical skills related to of undergrads and graduate ceramics. But on the other, it’s students, spent the winter about what it means to work session in technical workshops, as a team collaboratively within

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IN EQUILIBRIUM VESSEL by Ana Buitrago

Inspired by stirrup spout vessels from pre-Columbian cultures, Ana Buitrago’s In Equilibrium Vessel is a contemporary inter- pretation of an iconic form, with close attention paid to geometry, proportion, and balance. “She actually has a larger sculpture practice that’s very focused on balance and geometry,” Oyler says, “where she’ll have a big thing that’s balanced by a tiny piece of asparagus.”

IT WAS NO MORE THAN A FEELING by Mingxuan Tan

Inspired by the roly-poly toys of her childhood, Mingxuan Tan’s cups have a round bottom that creates an interdependent relationship between cup and coaster; the cup is unable to stand on its own. The hand-built STRAWS AND AQUEDUCTS pieces employ a number of glaze /// DISTURBED STREAM techniques, including lava glaze, by Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas but the yellow components are all created with Plasti-Dip, These powder-coated ceramic an industrial paint that’s often shells are in fact multipronged used to soften and brighten tool drinking straws that were handles. inspired by the aqueduct system in Cárdenas’s hometown of Oaxaca. “Over the years the aqueduct has been disrupted not only by corruption in local poli- tics, but also by the community itself,” says the designer. “Roads, staircases, and even houses have been built over and across the aqueduct. These multiple broken sites became a metaphor for how our accessibility to water may sometimes be taken for granted. This exploration and research lead to rethinking the typology of the straw as an object to explore storytelling.”

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Eight years ago, we launched a project during New York Design Week called Noho Next, a group exhibition where future OFFSITE design stars like Jonah Takagi, Jonathan Nesci, and Fort Standard debuted some of their earliest work. Last year, things came full circle as we returned to the curated group exhibition format Selects at our 2017 show, changing the name to OFFSITE Selects but keeping the formula the same: We’d choose new works by a variety of designers ― from established talents to brand- new studios ― and present them much like a gallery would.

Bellamoli Studio In this year’s edition, the works on view are international in scope and wildly varying in scale, from a chubby-legged, rusty velvet chaise by newcomer Jessica Herrera to six tiny marble vessels by Chile’s Rodrigo Bravo. Highlights include Anthony Bianco’s cast-glass lights, Yield’s Corian-and-glass coffee table, the first-ever furniture piece from LA interior designers Etc., and ceramic table lamps by new studio In Common With. The full list of participants is below; if you don’t recognize some of their names, you will soon enough.

ADDITION STUDIO IN COMMON WITH ALVARO GOMEZ-SELLES JESSICA HERRERA & MARISA MUSING JUMBO ANOTHER HUMAN LAUN BIANCO LIGHT & SPACE MUT DESIGN BELLAMOLI STUDIO NEW FORMAT BEN BARBER STUDIO NINA CHO Ben Barber Studio BIRNAM WOOD & SUNA BONOMETTI OTHER KINGDOM BLACKTABLE STUDIO PROJECT ROOM BRAVO RIES DESIRÉE GONZÁLEZ GARCÉS STROMBOLI ASSOCIATES ETC. SUPAFORM FIALURE TANTUVI BY THE EDITORS FORMABESTA YIELD

74 75 201 MULBERRY Norway × New York

BY JILL SINGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE SCHUCK

Norway × New York, the annual exhibition in which we pair

American designers with Norwegian ones, enters its third And then a funny thing hap- shipped to Brooklyn to be that can be perceived either pened along the way: joined to their wood and glass as chairs or stairs. The show, year at this week’s OFFSITE. But the idea for the exhibition Norwegian design took off. counterparts. as it has been since the begin- Young designers began band- The other teams include ning, is supported by the Royal actually came about even earlier than that: On a trip to ing together to exhibit at Objects of Common Interest Norwegian Consulate in New home and internationally, they × Falke Svatun, whose bou- York, who helped us recognize Norway in 2015, after meeting with a host of young Norwegian started working more closely clé-upholsterd Tube Chair was the talent of our Norwegian with local industries, and the inspired by intersecting torus; friends in the first place — designers, we noticed that the emerging talents there lacked entire design scene there Trueing × Andreas Bergsaker, before the rest of the world became a force to watch. So who created lamps using con- finally caught up. access to manufacturing ― not unlike the circumstances with this year’s installment of trasting panels of Douglas fir; Norway × New York, the brief Eny Lee Parker × Kaja Dahl, who here that led to a boom in American design nearly a decade was less about an education designed Suprematist-inspired in how to get things made and candelabras; Paul Loebach × ago. So we created a cross-cultural exchange in which more about the true spirit of Jonas Stokke, whose Tambour collaboration. In some of the cabinet is inspired by every- the paired designers would spend six months working toget- seven projects, half of the thing from bodega shutters to work was fabricated in Norway, roll-top desks; Souda × Stine her long-distance on objects that employed an American and half was made here. For Aas, who contributed two thin, instance, the ceramic com- perforated metal floor lamps; workshop for fabrication and could be independently ponents of Pat Kim and Ann and Kin & Company × Henrik Kristin Einarsen’s table lamps Ødegaard, who are debut- manufactured for future sales. were fabricated in Oslo, then ing two ambiguous objects

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Bukowski, who helms his own furnishings include a brand-new with field trips to the Albright- design studio, and Bigeleisen, bed, dresser, lounge chair, Knox Art Gallery and various who is a painter and sculptor, lamp, planter, and — naturally Frank Lloyd Wright houses in began collaborating profes- — the coolest Yves Klein Blue the Buffalo area. Lately I’m sionally on furniture last year; minibar we’ve ever laid eyes interested in the interaction of Steven for this year’s OFFSITE, they’ve on. We asked the pair to tell form, surface, and color, and teamed up with the support us more about how the project how they can be used to alter of HotelTonight — the app that came about. space. offers booking deals on some of the world’s best design What are both of your HANNAH: I was always most and boutique properties — to backgrounds? influenced by the Conceptual envision the ideal hotel suite, and Minimalist artists that Bukowski which they’ve brought to life in STEVEN: I was born and raised came out of the Modernist a 100-square-foot space inside in Buffalo, New York. My family era, but more recently, I’ve the show. has a long history of working been looking at architectural Merging Bukowski’s eye in craft and fabrication, which detailing to derive patterns for form with Bigeleisen’s eye gave me an early interest in to augment space on a large for color and pattern, the the arts. Architecture is a main scale. Currently, I’ve been × black-and-white-striped suite’s inspiration for me, which began cranking out stripe paintings, and look forward to building some large geometric sculp- tures over the summer.

You’ve only been profes- Hannah sionally collaborating for a year — how did you come to start working together?

STEVEN: I’d been playing around with new forms in my studio, mostly out of plywood, Bigeleisen so I could quickly ideate. I made a small bench out of the forms and texted a photo to Hannah, FOR HOTELTONIGHT and that’s where it began.

HANNAH: It’s true! I couldn’t not paint it! I loved the form, but knew it needed color to add depth and variation, to really BY MONICA KHEMSUROV make it pop. The transition to PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN PIVOVAR collaborating was easy. We’ve been talking about our ideas and studio practices with each Technically speaking, designer Steven Bukowski and artist other for more than 10 years. STEVEN: That first collab was Hannah Bigeleisen have designed a bedroom together before more of a call-and-response. I made the form, and Hannah ― the couple have been married for two years, and share a painted it to alter the viewer’s home in New York’s Bushwick neighborhood ― but this week perception of it. HANNAH: What separates this marks the first time they’re creating one that the public is collection is that we’ve been working together on all aspects invited to explore. of the project: The furniture,

78 79 STEVEN BUKOWSKI × HANNAH BIGELEISEN 201 MULBERRY

wall coverings, upholstery, and a fluffy robe. A stocked mini- HANNAH: Personally I think and accessories were all bar never hurts, either. hotels are missing a huge decided on together. opportunity to showcase and STEVEN: Some of the best support local artists. They use What did you discover experiences I’ve had staying mass-produced digital prints to about your similarities at hotels include the many Art save money and cover the walls, or differences through that Deco period hotels in South but literally anything would be first project? Beach, Miami. I’m drawn to more interesting to look at than them because of the detail a routinized landscape, or other STEVEN: I was a little hesitant involved on every level — mold- ‘nature-y’ printed canvases. at first about introducing ing, fixtures, colors, stucco, the bold, vibrant colors and pat- works. It’s all preserved in a If you could move into any terns to the plywood pieces way that I feel like I know what hotel permanently, which one we had developed, but once it would be like to live in one of would it be and why? I saw the first one, I knew it was those spaces and times. what they’d been missing from STEVEN: Probably the Wythe the beginning. How does this project Hotel or Williamsburg Hotel. represent your ideal hotel They’re both awesome works HANNAH: I think our differenc- room? of architecture that are styled es come from our backgrounds really beautifully, inside and out. as an artist and designer. STEVEN: It doesn’t just feel Steve analyzes process, feas- like a single room with a single HANNAH: I would love to have ibility, cost, and materials when function. There’s a place to an extended stay at the Box working on a project. I just rest, a place to read, a place to House hotel in Greenpoint, start with an idea and make it sleep, and space to entertain. Brooklyn. I love all the quirky work from there. I’ve learned details and architectural ele- a lot about material processes HANNAH: This room was ments. Recently we also went and how to build forms more created as a dream space, or to a fun party at the Yotel, efficiently from our collaboration. a dreaming space. All of the which totally transported me normal conventions of space from the grind of Midtown to What drove the new are suspended through pattern, a small, faraway, warm oasis, collection? form, and repetition. I’m always with an incredible view of the looking for spaces to dream in, city lights from the balcony. STEVEN: The Bubble series is especially when I’m staying in about pattern creating visual hotels. Too often, hotel rooms rhythm and play for the viewer. are sterile, with nondescript This series is a departure from my furniture that’s meant to be previous work, which was really invisible rather than noticed. reductive in concept and form. This space is the opposite, with Before, it was about only what wall treatments that augment was necessary to convey the the perception of the room and shape of the piece, while focusing reinforce the linear elements of on the negative space that the the furniture. piece included. The Bubble series is totally the opposite; it takes a Steven, what hotel design horror vaccui approach of filling trends have you been notic- space completely. ing lately? And Hannah, what about hotel art? What are the hallmarks of a great hotel design for each STEVEN: I’ve seen that many of you? hotels — not just the luxury ones — are taking their design more HANNAH: My favorite hotels seriously, in that the details and always have a great view, win- styling are really considered, dows that open so I can get fresh perhaps even reflecting their air, enough blankets for the bed, locale in an interesting way.

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EVENT MAP EVENT GUIDE

1 OFFSITE HUB SPACE 3 ASSEMBLY NEW YORK 6 FURNISHING UTOPIA B L E E C K E R May 17-20 May 16-20 May 19-22 201 Mulberry 170 Ludlow Street 158 Mercer Street New York, NY 10012 New York, NY 10002 New York, NY 10012

HOURS HOURS HOURS W H O U S T O N Thursday to Sunday: 11am-7pm Saturday to Sunday: 10am-6pm 11am-7pm Monday to Tuesday: 9am-5pm The Berlin-based duo Llot Llov This year’s show features debuts two new projects at OPENING PARTY G R E AT J O N E S S T group exhibitions as well as Assembly New York on the Saturday, May 19, 5pm-7pm 2 P R I N C E Sight Unseen–curated proj- Lower East Side: A fringed pen- ects focused around the dant lamp called Fran, and the CLOSING PARTY theme of collaboration. latest addition to their ongoing Saturday, May 22, 6pm-8:30pm Highlights include an exhibi- Osis line, a series of colorful, at the Design Within Reach tion pairing designers with salt-treated side tables. SoHo Studio, 110 Greene Street other high-profile creatives; a E 3 R D S T suite of translucent furniture Furnishing Utopia’s Hands to S P R I N G 4 COMING SOON 6 by Kim Markel for Glossier; Work exhibition features

E H O U S T O N the return of Norway x New May 16-20 objects by more than 25 studios, York; and an immersive, 37 Orchard Street each meditating on contem- hotel-themed installation by New York, NY 10002 porary attitudes towards Steven Bukowski and Hannah everyday chores as well as Bigeleisen for HotelTonight. HOURS the historical legacy of the B R O O M E Wednesday to Sunday: Shakers. An interactive visual 12pm-7:30pm and sound component chal- 2 3.1 PHILLIP LIM lenges visitors to consider

S TA N T O N May 16-23 The basement of the Lower East the sensorial satisfaction of 48 Great Jones Street Side boutique has been reimag- using common tools. LAFAYETTE 10 G R A N D New York, NY 10012 ined as “Lobby,” a multi-sensory showcase for Tom Hancocks’s 5 HOURS debut collection of chairs for 7 OPENING CEREMONY Monday to Saturday: the Australian brand Dowel Jones. May 15-29 1 3 C A N A L 11am-7pm 33-35 Howard Street Sunday: 12pm-6pm New York, NY 10013 11 GREENE 5 CREATURES OF 9 OPENING PARTY COMFORT HOURS K E N M A R E MERCER Thursday, May 17, 7pm-9pm May 16-23 Monday to Saturday:

12 RSVP: 205 Mulberry Street 11am-8pm BROADWAY [email protected] New York, NY 10012 Sunday: 12pm-7pm

7 CENTRE MARKET B R O O M E 8 At fashion designer Phillip HOURS Designed in collaboration with Lim’s NoHo flagship, Ben& Monday to Saturday: 11am-7pm Opening Ceremony, Harry

LAFAYETTE Aja Blanc have installed a new Sunday: 12pm-6pm Nuriev of Crosby Studios is WA L K E R S T collection including Donald launching a line that includes a CENTRE Judd–inspired chairs, a com- OPENING PARTY roomscape of purple furniture, 13 panion side table, layered Wednesday, May 16, 6pm-9pm brightly painted ceramic ves- CENTRE “mirror collages” in peach and sels, and brushstroke-adorned W H IT E S T

MULBERRY antique tones, and large-scale Studio Sayso, a new firm from bags and clothing. wood-turned vessels. designers Sophie Lou Jacobsen C A N A L MOTT and Sarita Posada, launches ELIZABETH Collection 01, featuring col-

BOWERY orful tables, chairs, and lamps inspired by Posada’s hometown FORSYTH CHRYSTIE in Colombia, where each house 4 is painted a different hue. ELDRIDGE

ALLEN

ORCHARD 82 LUDLOW 83 EVENT GUIDE SPONSORS

8 RETROSUPERFUTURE 10 SAMUJI 12 THE PRIMARY May 16-30 May 16-27 ESSENTIALS 21 Howard Street 12 Prince Street May 17-June 30 New York, NY 10013 New York, NY 10012 3 Centre Market Place New York, NY 10013 HOURS HOURS Monday to Saturday: Monday to Saturday: HOURS 12pm-8pm 11am-7pm Monday to Saturday: Sunday: 12pm-6pm Sunday: 12pm-6pm 12pm-7pm Sunday: 12pm-6pm OPENING PARTY OPENING PARTY Thursday, May 17, 7pm-9pm Thursday, May 17, 7pm-9pm Seattle-based studio Grain is debuting a custom vesion Designer Arielle Assouline- At the Finnish fashion brand’s of its Lands Rug at TPE Lichten of Slash Objects has Soho flagship, a trio of sculp- Manhattan. Inspired by aerial created a temporary instal- tures by Jamie Iacoli and John landscapes and crop circles, lation in the form of a Japanese- Hogan are on view. Inspired by each rug is made from stitched- inspired rock garden, with the paintings and architecture together braids of wool, a new collection pieces nestled of Ellsworth Kelly, each piece construction technique drawn amongst pebble-like pieces combines a steel armature with from early American settlers. of recycled rubber. rings of ombré glass.

13 VISO 9 ROLL & HILL 11 SATURDAYS NYC May 17-20 May 17-July 1 May 17-20 62 White Street 3 Mercer Street 31 Crosby Street New York, NY 10013 New York, NY 10013 New York, NY 10013 HOURS Due to a fire in the Roll& Hill HOURS Thursday to Sunday: 10am-6pm showroom, this presentation Thursday: has been postponed. 8am-8:30pm OPENING PARTY Friday: 8am-7pm Thursday, May 17, 7pm-9pm Multidisciplinary designer Alex Saturday to Sunday: RSVP: [email protected] Proba has installed a new 10am-7pm four-piece rug concept titled In Tribeca, architect and Luster — blending bamboo OPENING PARTY designer Giancarlo Valle has silk, New Zealand wool, and Thursday, May 17, 6pm-8:30pm collaborated with new textiles metallic yarn — at Roll & Hill’s start-up Viso Project, who Mercer Street showroom. In the backyard of Saturdays provided the upholstery fabric NYC, The Principals present for Valle’s Smile seats. In Golden Arch, an 8-foot-tall tri- addition, the space features angular wave structure made vignettes spotlighting Valle’s from the studio’s modular, furniture alongside other stackable Prism Planters. objects from Viso’s collections, including blankets, tapestries, and cushions.

84 85 1 COLOPHON

Sight Unseen OFFSITE is a showcase of the best new contemporary works by independent designers, curated by the editors of Sight Unseen.

CREATED BY Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer of Sight Unseen www.sightunseen.com

DESIGNED BY Sophie Lou Jacobsen and Adrian Harwood www.ourstudio.nyc

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bridget Moriarity, Sean Santiago, Deborah Shapiro, Laura May Todd, Shoko Wanger, Drew Zeiba

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Pippa Drummond, Clément Pascal, Julia Robbs, Sean Santiago, Charlie Schuck, Maggie Shannon

TYPE Sporting Grotesque By Lucas Le Bihan velvetyne.fr

Ogg By Sharp Type vllg.com

PRINTING Linco in Long Island City, NY www.linco.com

© 2018 Sight Unseen

All rights reserved under pan- American copyright conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

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