milan’s design fair
i had dinner night before last with a friend who’d just come back from covering the design fairs in milan. sounded like fun to me (and probably you), but for her, it was just plain hard work. attaching my favorite images of the objects she reproduced in T MAGAZINE:
ingo maurer, “j.b. schmetterling.” photo by martino lombezzi.
i’m not a huge ingo maurer fan. his designs feel forced. and the more “conceptual” his lighting gets, the more they read as one-liners. it really hit home when i saw his show at the cooper hewitt a few years ago. i so wanted to love it, but for me, there’s no staying power. HOWEVER, i think this pendant — with it’s handmade butterflies, moths and dragonflies poised to batter themselves to death against the blown glass — is fantastic! here is a metaphor for humanity’s irresistible attraction to what’s worst for it that i’d love to live with…
for more ingo maurer, go to his website: http://www.ingo-maurer.com/products/
and isn’t this table leg gorgeous?!
photo by martino lombezzi
it’s the best part of paul loebach’s “watson table,” named after the discoverer of the structure of DNA, and realized by laminating wood and carbon fiber.
for more of pilar’s insights into milan, go to:
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/milan-report-the-wrap-up-part-i/
Graham Owen is the Los Angeles-based fine artist who made the insects for these lovely pendant lights designed by Ingo Maurer and introduced in Milan this year. Although depicted quite nicely in the image above, it is only when Graham’s beautiful creatures are viewed close-up that one can truly marvel at the lifelike qualities he imbues in them. I swear it would not surprise me to see one of his masterfully crafted butterflies or dragonflies take off and fly around the room. They are that realistic!
what a beautiful table and blog! thanks for sharing