Design for the Other 90% at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

(this show took place in 2007)

NEW YORK—Incongruously set within the formal, manicured garden of the Fifth Avenue mansion that houses the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, "Design for the Other 90%" features objects like pre-fab emergency shelters, terra cotta water filters, high-capacity load-carrying bicycles and manually powered water pumps. These objects are bordered by sandbags and wood pallets and interspersed with signs announcing statistics like "More than one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water."

"Design for the Other 90%" refers to the 90% of people who do not live in the First World, whose needs are of a more basic and pressing nature than buying the latest electronic, high-tech gadget. For this population in the developing world, obtaining access to food and clean water are much more immediate concerns.

Celebrated design often focuses on aesthetics more than solutions to basic problems. Most design targets the early adaptors and taste-makers who are in the top 10% wealth bracket of the world. 

By contrast, this exhibition focuses on designers who are striving to improve living conditions in simple ways for "the other 90%."  

Curator Cynthia E. Smith has assembled a diverse selection of objects—most of them decidedly low-tech—that are highly practical and improve the lives of people living in rural, impoverished areas.

Some of the simplest designs are also the most impressive. 

The "Q Drum" designed by Pieter Hendrikse is a water container shaped like a wheel or donut with a hole through the middle. A rope can be put through the hole, and by pulling with the rope the container can be rolled along. This is an alternative to carrying heavy jugs of water for long distances. 

Another simple design from International Development Enterprises (IDE) India is a giant, 10,000 liter plastic bag used to collect water from monsoon rains in India. This enables irrigation water to be stored underground in a hand-dug pit, which is far more economical than building a cement storage tank.

My favorite product is a fusion of ancient and cutting-edge technologies. Portable Light Team has created a textile that uses photovoltaic materials to convert sunlight into electricity, and can be used as a light source itself when needed. 

In partnership with the Huichol people of rural Mexico, Portable Light technology has been woven into carrying bags that also incorporate traditional Huichol designs and weaving techniques. Portable Light is a valuable asset to the Huichol, who use it to help illuminate their homes so they can study and work after sundown. 

Since they are semi-nomadic people who must frequently travel long distances on foot to get to work or school, Portable Light can be carried with them to help light their way, make traveling safer.

"Design for the Other 90%" expands awareness of important innovations in design, not only to enhance the aesthetics and usability of products, but also to improve the lives of billions of people in their daily struggle to grow food, find safe drinking water, and carry their loads.  

By seeing this exhibit, we of the top 10% get a sobering perspective on the daily struggles of "the other 90%."

Many designs give us a hopeful glimpse of many improved lives in the future, as these products are adapted.The exhibition catalog seems necessary to get a good understanding of these products and how they are used. 

The exhibition could be more informative, with demonstrations of how the products are used, perhaps on video monitors. Without seeing the products in action, it's sometimes difficult to determine their purpose. 

I hope that this will become a traveling exhibition.  

It seems important to expose more people to the concepts of good design, not only to beautify and enhance the lives of the top 10%, but as a means of improving the quality of life for all people, 100% of them.

 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Nick Cave at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2009)

 

Nick Cave

photos from www.ybca.org

Furry, wooly, hairy, jangly, bead-dazzled, be-doilied, glittery, godly Soundsuits by Nick Cave are on show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in an exhibition called "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth."

Soundsuits are so-named for the sounds and music created when the sculptural, costume-like suits are worn and danced in. The Soundsuits are meant to be costumes in performance art.

Some suggest Hopi Kachinas or tribal shamanic ceremonial costume, while others (especially those covered in sequins) suggest campy, drag queen, over-the-top showpieces.

My favorite Soundsuit is the One Man Band Soundsuit, with musical instruments all over it. It’s hard to resist the urge to touch, especially the fun fur Soundsuits that look like giant plush Gumby dolls.

My favorite pieces, though, are not Soundsuits, but sculptures: life-sized bears and little beavers, whose pelts are made of cast-off sweaters pieced together. I also love Cave’s tapestries, representing the Universe, that hang on the walls and frame the exhibit. They are huge quilts made from glittery, sequined fabrics, all in midnight blues and blacks, accented with star-like silvery galaxies.

 

While it’s fun to see the riot of color, texture and the artist’s imagination on display in this show, there’s no question that we’re only getting a small part of the experience. Several videos are also included that show the Soundsuits worn, in motion and in performance.

This is how they are intended to be experienced, as part of performance art. All senses are meant to be used, and the Soundsuits are definitely not meant to be static and silent, but rather joyful, exuberant, celebrations of the dance of life.

all images from www.ybca.org

LINKS

Nick Cave Art In Motion Video

Nick Cave Soundsuits Video 

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Marjorie Schick at San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design

 

Marjorie Schick

(this exhibition took place in 2007)

For artist Marjorie Schick, who makes wearable sculpture/jewelry, 

no adornment could be over-embellished or overly outrageous.

 

Marjorie Schick sculpture neck pieces

photos by Rosa Phoenix

"Sculpture Transformed" describes these fantastic jewelry pieces.

Upside-down, inside-out, backwards, forwards, layered, folded, collapsed or extended . . .

every surface is covered with riotous colors, intricately-painted patterns, varying textures, sensuous shapes or sharp angles.

 

Marjorie Schick 

The best pieces are made of materials like painted wood and papier mache. 

All are multi-dimensional and transformable, 

meant to function both as sculpture and as jewelry to adorn the body 

 

(though most are impractical to wear).

 

detail

Sculptures may be worn as collars, headdresses, armbands and rings. 

Frequently the pieces are scaled large, to extend the body into space.

 





Schick's work embraces multitudes of possibility. 


Not only does her work involve painting, craft and sculpture, 


but it also transforms the body into a work of art.

Her pieces frame or showcase parts of the body

—face, hands, arms, torso—

to make these ever-mobile and expressive parts 

into kinetic sculptures themselves.

Some pieces, like a set of rings, may be worn on the hands, or  

assembled into a set of custom pedestals that looks like 

a whimsical chess set.

Marjorie Schick rings

Many pieces are painted in a rainbow-prismatic palette 

for a jewel-like effect that makes the pieces wink and sparkle. 

 

wrapped, painted nails

 

book series in a circle

Schick plays with forms as varied as curling rams' horns, snakes, hairy fibers, 

clothespins, horseshoe nails, geometric shapes, or long sticks seemingly 

connected randomly at acute angles like a game of pick-up sticks.

Marjorie Schick

All the pieces are visually delightful, and, I can only imagine, tactile pleasures as well.

shimmering irridescent scales

Seeing the sculptures on mannequin forms and worn by models in accompanying photographs made me wish I could see the pieces on living, moving bodies, 

perhaps incorporated into movement or dance specifically choreographed for Schick's work.

In fact, Schick's early work was once exhibited in a show called

"Choreographing the Object: An Evening of Visual Art + Dance" 

in which dancers interpreted the pieces.

 

scarf and tool belt made from painted wood

  

detail of pieces

 

the artist's tool belt

Schick's work is pure delight, calling for the theatricality of a performance. 

The sculptor entices you to want to put on the art, 

transform your body into a work of art, 

and show it off!

San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design