Cranbrook designers with their work.
All photos here by Charlie Schuck.
Lawless Chair by Evan Fay
Dimensions: 60"w x 36"d x 42"h
Materials: steel, brass, foam, scuba knit fabric
Description:The Vine Chair seeks beauty in chaos - like a cluster of wild energies that overrun a static order. Like vines that grow on the ruins of monuments. Like nature’s revenge on our human ‘logic’. A place to sit and ponder our place in time, our place in nature.
Growth by Robin Chen
Dimensions: 18'' x 17'' x 17'' / 18'' x 17'' x 15''
Materials: Wood, Resin
Description: What is natural? What is artificial? Will these connections be healing or toxic? These side tables serve as a reminder of these questions.
Oxidation Table by Frank McGovern
Dimensions: 52" x 36" x 15"
Material: Steel
Description: The patchwork quilt may be the antithesis of the mass-produced design object--a symbol of handcraft and the resourceful use of materials. This project adapts and abstracts the traditional textile technique into a new and emphatic expression of craft and materiality. The rusted patina gives a poetic suggestion of disintegration over time.
Danh Circled the World by Austin Swick
Dimensions: 18" x 20" x 114"
Materials: Solid White Oak
Description: A universal mythology gives inspiration to this form.
“In the end we may ask ourselves what rules the mind, the intellect, and cosmic equilibrium. This is a thread that binds all human nature. As this thread degrades, so too does our reason for being. In a symbolic act to reunite and save all life on earth, Danh circled the world like a belt, binding it and preventing it from flying apart in splinters.”
Knot Rug by Sophie Yan
Dimensions: 27”W x 63”L
Materials: Cotton twine, bicycle inner tubes
Description: This piece subverts the traditional notion of Fine Design by transforming a waste material (rubber inner tubes) into a precious object through a meticulous craft process and countless hours of human labor. In a world where the human population is growing at an alarming rate while machines are steadily replacing human labor, what is the value of the human hand? What is the value of ‘waste’ material?
Global Population: Year 0/1986/2050 by Vineta Chugh
Dimensions: 22" x 5.25" x 6.5"
Materials: 3D printed plastic, copper, electrical components
Description: Will human population growth lead to environmental collapse?
The forms of this lamp are generated by actual data depicting past and projected figures for human population. Numeric data were translated into architectural forms that show relative relationships over time. The light of the globe becomes dimmed with the weight of all these passengers.
Mapped Vessels by Raveena Bhalara
Dimensions: 10.5" x 5" x 1.5"
Materials: White Porcelain, Saffron Rice, Black Rice, Pink Himalayan Salt, Calendula Flowers, and Green Lentils
Description: These vessels are abstractions of the globe’s continents and hold various grains that feed the world. This is a reminder that we are slowly and unapologetically depleting the earth of its resources. As the climate changes and agriculture begins to fail, how much will be left?
EB2 Lamp by Christian Tschanz
Dimensions: 8.5" x 8.5" x 26"
Materials: Porcelain, Brass, Steel, LED Light
Description: EB2 references a glowing planet. This is a place of the pristine chaos and ancient energies that rule the cosmos, and each of us.
Melting City by Bud Nitaya
Dimensions: 1 piece 4”x 4”, set 4” x 16”
Materials: wax/brass and wax/metal
Description: These city-shaped candles burn to show the ruins of monumental architecture. Empires are built, destroyed and rebuilt again, in an endless cycle.
Superstructure Mirror by Hannah Vaughan
Dimensions: 52" x 10 3/4” x 34 1/4”
Materials: Aluminum, Mirror
Description: Free standing mirror and shelving unit constructed as a fragment of a skyscraper. The mirror reflects the disintegration of nature in the constructions we have built upon our landscape.
Portal 2 by Aleksandra Pollner
Dimensions: 6’ L x 2’ W x 2’6” H
Materials: Wood, Powder-coated steel, Copper-plated rebar, Rusted rebar with a matte finish
Description: Credenza with interior removable steel boxes. A dark architectural box is juxtaposed with of an expressive construction material - steel reinforcing bars used to build modern cities and infrastructure. The material is transformed through rusting and copper plating to highlight the beauty in mortality – the cycle of death and rebirth of cities, civilization, and humans.
Tactical Nouveau: Tall Chair #1 by Keenan Rowe
Dimensions: 32"x 32"x 45"
Materials: Carbon fiber, Nylon
Description: Beautifully grotesque, a truthful fallacy, the end of the world is predicted yet unexpected. Tactile Nouveau is a duality, ornamented for survival.
Black Bird by Ayako Aratani
Dimensions: 47” x 33” x 37”
Materials: polyester fabric, brass, walnut, plywood
Description: At the end of the world there are no people, just an awkward creature that sees the world with pure eyes and says "What happened to humanity?"
90° by Luke Chen
Dimensions: 17"x 17"x 72"
Materials: Gray Acrylic Mirror
Description: A mirror shaped like a corner is a framed boundary that creates infinity. This piece explores our perception of space and illusion. When facing the corner head-on, the human reflection is denied by an illusion.
UltraLux by Sophia Thomas
Dimensions: 4.5" x 3.5" x 2"
Materials: Jewelry box, lenticular prints, plaque
Description: In a post-consumerist future when the physical presence of ultra luxury goods is rendered obsolete, this "survival" kit provides intangible reminders of wealth and excess with lenticular prints of the most pervasive ultra luxury goods on the market today.
Namo Amitābha (Seek the path to the Pure Land) by Jing Ouyang
Dimension: 36” x 36” x 12”
Materials: Foam, Batting, Ultrapreme Jumbo Stretch
Description: Namo Amitābha is a meditation cushion that evokes Mother Buddha's Lotus on which the resting Buddha is often portrayed. Meditation is the path to be reborn into the Pure Land where the Buddha resides. Through meditation, the spirit of humankind lasts beyond the end of the world.
Exhibition views at the Collective Design Fair