Specialist foundry UAP aims to "make art happen"

VDF studio profile: UAP is an international metal workshop that produces everything from large-scale public art or architecture commissions to the iconic Oscars trophies for the Academy Awards.

The foundry has a history of collaborating with well-known figures in the art world. It was responsible for creating Idris Khan's Wahat Al Karama monument in Abu Dhabi, as well as the first public sculpture of American artist Kehinde Wiley, who painted Barack Obama's presidential portrait.

UAP was founded in Brisbane, Australia, 27 years ago by brothers Daniel and Matthew Tobin, and has since expanded to include a team of 200 people across the company's Shanghai and New York workshops as well as its operations in the Middle East.

Its technicians and craftspeople are capable of casting larger-than-life installations in three dimensions using materials including bronze, stainless steel, ductile iron, aluminium and copper as well as precious metals such as silver and gold.

Kehinde Wiley's Rumors of War was temporarily set up in Times Square

"UAP has developed its expertise gradually and our ability to deliver high-quality outcomes emerges from the entire team's ability to develop strong working relationships with the artists and clients," said Matthew Tobin.

"At the heart of this global operation is the drive to make art happen and every team member's dedication to find common ground and facilitate the journey of the artist."

Among the company's most well-known projects is Wiley's Rumors of War, which reimagines the historical monument of a US Confederate general on horseback with a young African-American man in the saddle.

Standing at just over eight metres tall and five metres wide, the installation was initially set up in Times Square before being moved to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The Selfie Panda sculpture by Florentijn Hofman was installed in the city of Dujiangyan in China

According to Matthew Tobin, the Shanghai studio is responsible for some of the company's "most adventurous commissions", including a gigantic metal rendering of a panda taking a selfie, envisioned by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman as an evolution of his enormous Rubber Duck installation from 2013.

The studio also manufactured British artist Khan's Wahat Al Karama or Oasis of Dignity monument, which was longlisted for a Dezeen Award in 2018 as well as winning an Iconic Award for Architecture from the German Design Council.

At 90 metres long, the installation consists of a series of towering slabs that are lined up like dominoes and made from aluminium that was extracted and recycled from decommissioned armoured vehicles.

Ngarunga Nangama, also known as Calm Water Dream, is a sandstone mural created for the lobby of an office building that stands atop the former Tank Stream

Back in Australia, the company also collaborated with Aboriginal artist Judy Watson to create Ngarunga Nangama – a 300-square-metre sandstone mural that visualises the course of Sydney's historic Tank Stream, which today lies buried underneath its central business district.

On a smaller scale, UAP produces not just the Oscar statuettes but also carefully replicated, editioned artworks of different scales for artists including Lindy Lee, Reko Renie and Emily Floyd, whose hand-carved sculptural parrot was 3D-scanned and turned into a series of five oversized aluminium statues.

UAP is also responsible for manufacturing the 5.6-metre-tall Boy Walking sculpture by New Zealand artist Ronnie van Hout

"I am always in awe as I walk through one of our workshops," said Daniel Tobin.

"There is a constant movement of people, the hum of machinery, and the excitement of making. The furnace is lit, bronze is on the boil and the noise is deafening. When new projects are underway, there is no better place to be."

Studio: UAP
Website: uapcompany.com
Contact address: info@uapcompany.com

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About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place from 15 April to 30 June. For more information, or to be added to the mailing list, contact us at vdf@dezeen.com.

A studio profile on Virtual Design Festival could expose your work to Dezeen's three million monthly website visitors. Each studio profile will be featured on the VDF homepage and included in Dezeen's daily newsletter, which has 170,000 subscribers.

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New Designers show sees graduates strive toward a circular economy

Edible ramen packaging and biomaterials are among the five sustainable design projects from the graduate class of 2020 in this VDF school show, curated by New Designers.

The theme for the exhibit is Circular Economy – a sustainable economic system aimed at eliminating waste – chosen by the organisers of the annual New Designers event in response to a surge of design students tackling environmental issues in their work.

It is one of four Virtual Design Festival school shows curated by New Designers in lieu of its annual event in London. The exhibits feature a total of 20 graduate projects and, in addition to sustainability, explore the themes of gender, boldness and nature.

The five featured projects below were completed by graduates from different courses and universities from across the UK, unified by a clear ambition to make the design world more sustainable.

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New Designers graduate show

Showcase: New Designers
Theme: Circular Economy
Instagram: @newdesigners
Organiser: Upper Street Events

Event statement: 

"New Designers, the UK's largest design graduate show, celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2020 with the launch of a series of digital initiatives throughout the summer. In lieu of a physical showcase, the event will aim to promote and celebrate the work of the graduate class of 2020. With these virtual initiatives, New Designers hopes to offer graduates alternative opportunities to gain better insights into the design industry and advance in their professional careers in such extraordinary circumstances.

"Since the start of June, New Designers has been running ND Selects, a social media campaign that hopes to offer visibility and recognition to students' final projects. Each day, New Designers publishes a post about different students, highlighting their final piece, alongside their processes and influences.

"This year has seen a surge in final projects that respond directly to environmental and social issues. From game design to textile prints, the class of 2020 has offered creative design solutions for contemporary storage, diagnosing dyslexia and reconnecting children with nature. Making informed and considered material choices that are either recyclable or locally sourced has also been a key focus for many students."

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Caitlin Agnew

"The project brings together traditional textile design processes with material engineering and utilises basic cooking skills to create innovative biomaterials suitable for a fashion application.

"Using only natural and waste materials as ingredients to create the biomaterials, new screen-printing binders have been made out of natural ingredients in an attempt to make traditional screen printing more sustainable.

"The process for creating the biomaterials largely resembles cooking, using basic kitchen ingredients and appliances. New materials have been created using only waste or natural ingredients so that they are biodegradable in a shift towards a circular design system. Materials such as agar and different forms of waste such as seaweed, food waste and textile waste have been a focus for experimentation."

Name: Caitlin Agnew
University: Birmingham City University
Course: BA (Hons) Textile Design 

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Kiera Morel

"This project explores the ways in which experimental and unconventional materials can be constructed into textiles through knitting and crochet. The samples explore qualities needed to create innovative, tactile and interactive fabrics.

"An integral part of Kiera's process was to utilise material exploration, sampling and research. Through this, she found that materials can possess different tactile qualities than they appear to. Kiera aims to challenge perceptions of materiality while creating unexpected haptic sensations when interacting with the textiles.

"Where possible, Kiera has used natural fibres for samples. When using synthetic yarns she has limited each sample to one kind of fibre to allow them to be recycled easier. She has also used waste materials in some of the machine-knitted samples."

Name: Kiera Morel
University: Norwich University of the Arts
Course: BA (Hons) Textile Design 

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Edible, Dissolvable Noodle Pack by Holly Grounds

"The project reinvents the way ramen noodles are cooked and consumed at home while decreasing the environmental impact, by eliminating excessive single-use plastic. The dehydrated noodles are individually wrapped in an edible starch-based film, which dissolves in contact with boiling water.

"Flavourings and spices are set in the film and released when the film dissolves, eliminating the need for plastic sachets. The project aims to give consumers a sustainable option for convenience meals and has the opportunity to be developed further for a range of dehydrated ready meals.

"Sustainability was considered at every stage of the project. The biobased starch film is dissolvable and manufactured in an environmentally friendly way, by heating the natural ingredients and allowing the mixture to set in a mould to form the film. The outer paper packaging is recyclable."

Name: Holly Grounds
University: Ravensbourne University of London
Course: BA (Hons) Product Design

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Bulls**t Free Burger by Becky Ward

"The product is called the Bulls**t Free Burger, a play on words as it would be beef free but also free from many of the additives and nasties found in plant-based competitor products.

"Becky created the branding and a 360-degree campaign strategy across billboard advertising, wrapped buses, collaboration with fast-food chains and sponsored posts on websites such as Amazon Fresh to reach audiences through a multitude of touchpoints. The brand was based around simplicity and standing out from other plant-based burger competitors.

"Traditionally plant-based meat alternatives are aimed at a vegan or vegetarian audience, Becky wanted to do something completely different and appeal to meat-eaters who were looking for plant-based swaps from time to time. The most unique part of her campaign was the collaboration with fast-food burger restaurant Shake Shack, a favourite amongst the chosen demographic."

Name: Becky Ward
University: Brunel University
Course: BSc Digital Design, BSc Visual Effects and Motion Graphics

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Cardboard Vase by Cathy Wolter

"While working and researching on metal casting and pewter, the fact of pewter being the fourth precious metal stood out. Once pewter was a common material, but it has been replaced by materials more responsive to mass production. However, mass production is destroying the environment, and we must find ways to reimagine our role as designers and makers.

"The inspiration for the Cardboard Vase design grew out of the desire to remove the distance between the client and the product. As facilities were restricted during the lockdown, Cathy developed the concept of pouring pewter straight into a cardboard mould to achieve a circle and a cradle-to-cradle principle.

"The Vase can be returned to the place where it was bought at any time and the value of the material be refunded. Pewter is known to have a value that fluctuates very little and can be seen as a small investment. The seller, in turn, can melt it again to produce a new product. It's a win-win situation for the customer, manufacturer and for the environment."

Name: Cathy Wolter
University: London Metropolitan University
Course: BA Furniture and Product Design

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Virtual Design Festival's student and schools initiative offers a simple and affordable platform for student and graduate groups to present their work during the coronavirus pandemic. Click here for more details.

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Chimera surface tiles by Elena Salmistraro for Florim

VDF products fair: The decorative Chimera surface tile collection by Elena Salmistraro and Italian ceramics company Florim takes its cues from Greek mythology.

Developed by Salmistraro with Florim's sub-brand CEDIT, the large ceramic surface tiles are a reference to the four-legged mythological hybrid creature Chimera, whose body is part lion, dragon and goat.

Like the beast, the Chimera collection is conceived as a "combination of different creatures", featuring four different tile styles named Empatia, Radici, Ritmo and Colore that all have individual motifs and stories.

Empatia marries art deco references with graphics that evoke clown faces, and Colore tiles are distinguished by a speckled finish that resembles splashes of paint.

Radici and Ritmo both take their cues from textiles. While Radici evokes the textures of leather and tribal masks, Ritmo references the work of Bauhaus textile artists Gunta Stölzl and Anni Albers.

The tiles are all large format porcelain slabs, available in three sizes and in either a matte or shiny surface finish.

"This collection is an introspective work focusing on my life and the way I design,” explains the artist and designer Salmistrar. "Chimera is like a book with four different chapters: I set out to differentiate these graphic motifs to create four totally different stories," she continued.

"The collaboration with CEDIT has been very stimulating; it was a wonderful challenge that allowed us, together, to create something new, experimental and fascinating."

Product: Chimera
Designer: Elena Salmistraro
Brand: Florim

About VDF products fair: the VDF products fair offers an affordable launchpad for new products during Virtual Design Festival. For more details email vdf@dezeen.com.

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Live interview with Patternity's Anna Murray as part of Virtual Design Festival

Creative director Anna Murray, who is the co-founder of London creative studio Patternity, will speak to Dezeen in a live Screentime talk sponsored by Philips TV & Sound as part of VDF. Tune in from 4:00pm UK time.

Murray, who founded Patternity together with Grace Winteringham, will discuss her work and career with Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

Murray and Winteringham aim to explore the potential power of patterns – both seen and unseen – in creating positive societal change.

London design studio Patternity focuses on pattern design

Murray has a broad background spanning fine art photography, creative direction and strategy within the fashion, luxury and advertising industries.

In 2009, she and Winteringham set up Patternity, which started out as an online research platform showcasing patterned imagery.

The studio has since grown to become a multidisciplinary creative studio with projects straddling design, science, nature and wellbeing.

Patternity co-founder Anna Murray speaks to Dezeen

For last year's London Design Festival, Patternity created an immersive installation called Life Labyrinth London, which took the form of a low-rise, monochrome labyrinth-cum-seating area.

Previous London Design Festival projects include a basement climbing wall adorned with monochrome contours and a 3D installation at Somerset House, which the studio described as a "giant patterned playground".

This conversation is sponsored by Philips TV & Sound and is part of our Screentime series for Virtual Design Festival.

Previous sessions have included designers such as Ini Archibong, Teresa van Dongen and Xandra van der Eijk.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 10 July 2020. It brings the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

To find out what's coming up at VDF, check out the schedule. For more information or to join the mailing list, email vdf@dezeen.com

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Organic, Sunrise Gradients Mask Front Pages of The New York Times by Artist Sho Shibuya

All images © Sho Shibuya, shared with permission

For many people, blocking out the news has meant logging off of Twitter and resisting the urge to check every breaking update. But Sho Shibuya has taken a more literal approach to the stress-reducing action. The Brooklyn-based artist and founder of the design studio Placeholder has taken to painting over the front page of The New York Times with vibrant gradients that mimic the day’s sunrise.

Beginning in March when cities began to lock down, Shibuya realized that his sensory perceptions of the world changed. “Some days passed and I realized that from the small windows of my studio, I could not hear the sounds of honking cars or people shouting,” he says. “I could hear the birds chirping energetically and sound of wind in the trees, and I looked up and saw the bright sky, beautiful as ever despite the changed world beneath it.”

Shibuya began to photograph the sunrise each morning, recreating each rich gradient in acrylic. His color choices are inspired largely by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige, who was commended for his bokashi gradient technique and signature blue tones. Each of Shibuya’s works maintains the header and date of the publication. “I started to capture the moment in the newspaper, contrasting the anxiety of the news with the serenity of the sky, creating a record of my new normal,” he says. “Their front page has always been a time capsule of a day in history, so it made sense to use history as the canvas because the paintings are meant to capture a moment in time.”

The spirit of the project is that maybe, even after the pandemic subsides, people can continue some of the generosity and peace we discovered in ourselves and that the sky reminds us of every day with a sunrise through a small window. If one thing the news has made clear, we need generosity and peace for all people now more than ever.

To follow the daily record, check out Shibuya’s Instagram, where he shares updates on the optimistic series. (via Spoon & Tamago)

 

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