“We the People” (2011), shoelaces, 96 x 324 inches. All images courtesy Nari Ward and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London
Jamaica-born artist Nari Ward bases his practice in found objects and their inherent mutability. The Harlem-based artist has scoured New York City’s streets for 25 years gathering house keys escaped from a ring, discarded glass bottles, and clothing tossed season-to-season. Through sculptures and large-scale installations, the scavenged objects find new meaning, whether explicitly scribing a phrase from the United States Constitution or creating more subtle historical connections.
While commenting broadly on themes of race, poverty, and rampant consumerism, Ward is cognizant of the varied meanings burned wooden bats or shoelaces hold for different populations. No matter the medium, many of his works are site-specific in form and fluid in context, allowing the narratives to take new shapes as they travel from community to community.
His 1993 installation “Amazing Grace,” for example, originally was presented in Harlem in response to the AIDS crisis. The artist gathered lengths of fire hose and approximately 300 baby strollers to line the space’s perimeter, with some piled in a central area, as well. In New York City, houseless populations sometimes use the childcare item to carry their belongings, imbuing the objects with a specific message within that milieu. When “Amazing Grace” later traveled around Europe, the strollers were interpreted anew.
“Amazing Grace” (1993), approximately 300 baby strollers and fires hoses, sound, dimensions variable. Installation view, New Museum, New York (2019)
In a 2019 interview, Ward expanded on the inherent fluctuations within the symbols and objects he employs:
History tells a particular story, and I’m trying to say: ‘Yeah there is a particular story, but there are many stories that aren’t visible within that one created narrative.’ I think that it’s about bringing mystery into the conversation more so than facts. So the whole idea is bringing this marker, image, or form to the forefront, but at the same time destabilizing it so that it acts as a placeholder for other possibilities or somebody else’s narrative.
Ward is incredibly prolific, and in 2020 alone, his public artworks and installations have been shown in Hong Kong, Denver, New York City, Ghent, New York, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. To explore the artist’s projects further, check out his site and pick up a copy of Phaidon’s 2019 book, Nari Ward: We the People, which accompanied the 2019 New Museum retrospective of his early works.
“Spellbound” (2015), piano, used keys, Spanish moss, light, audio, and video elements, 52.5 x 60 x 28 inches. Photo by Max Yawney
“Spellbound” (2015), piano, used keys, Spanish moss, light, audio, and video elements, 52.5 x 60 x 28 inches. Photo by Max Yawney
“Geography: Bottle Messenger” (2002), bottles, letters, wire, and metal frame, 354.33 x 157.48 x 157.48 inches
“We the People” (2011), (detail), shoelaces, 96 x 324 inches
“Iron Heavens” (1995), oven pans, ironed sterilized cotton, and burnt wooden bats, 140 x 148 x 48 inches
“Amazing Grace” (1993), approximately 300 baby strollers and fires hoses, sound, dimensions variable. Installation view, New Museum, New York (2019)
“SoulSoil” (2011), earth, ceramic toilet fixtures, shoes, broom and mop handles, acrylic and polyurethane, approximately 236 x 236 x 236 inches. Photo by Agostino Osio
“SoulSoil” (2011) (detail), earth, ceramic toilet fixtures, shoes, broom and mop handles, acrylic and polyurethane, approximately 236 x 236 x 236 inches. Photo by Agostino Osio
“Mango Tourist” (2011), foam, battery canisters, Sprague Electric Company resistors and capacitors, and mango pits, 8 figures, each approximately 120 inches in height. In collaboration with MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts
Chicago art space Wrightwood 659 is presenting a showcase of works by Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi. Curator Khushnu Panthaki Hoof selects four projects that show how the Pritzker Prize-winner interprets Hindu philosophy in architecture.
Twenty Doshi projects from 1958 to 2014 are shown through drawings and models, artworks, sketches, video and photography at the exhibition, which is on view at the Tadao Ando-designed Wrightwood 659 until 12 December.
The buildings are arranged into four themes that each demonstrate elements of Doshi's architecture philosophy – Home and Identity, Creating a Livable City, Shaping an Integrated Education and Building Academic Institutions.
"For him a building is created out of memories, associations, sounds, forms, spaces and images, porous and open-ended in nature," the curator told Dezeen.
"In most of his buildings you don't notice them as being dominate, rather you notice the life that goes on around them," she continued.
"Further, his works underline his interpretation of the essence of life according to the cyclic notion of time in the Hindu philosophy namely: blossoming – accomodative, growing, adaptable & perceptive to change over time; expanding – open endedness, holistic approach and well integrated with the surrounding; melting – merging into the landscape, rooted & inclusive approach to design and churning – timeless, intangible and groundbreaking."
Read on for Hoof's description of four Doshi works featuring these elements:
Photo by Vinay Panjwani
Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, India, 1977-1992
The Indian Institute of Management is a leading academic institution spread over 60 hectares in Bangalore, also known as "The City of Gardens". The large campus was built over a period of 20 years and was conceived as a series of courtyards that harmonizes with the city's comfortable tropical climate and lush green areas.
Inspired by the architecture at Fatehpur Sikri near Agra and Madurai Meenakshi Temple in Tamil Nadu, Doshi designed the paths through the campus to connect the elements of the larger spatial arrangement.
His understanding of Hindustani classical music is evident in the articulation of its structure resonating the subtle nuances of rhythm, movement and time. Like thumri – a genre of Hindustani classical music – the built form is expressed with countless hues of rhythms through the articulation of structure and modulation of light.
Photo by Iwan Baan
Sangath Architect's Studio, Ahemdabad, India, 1980
Sangath in Gujarati, Doshi's mother tongue, means "moving together through participation". It is Doshi's own design studio, where today three generations work alongside one another. Doshi had just turned 50 and wanted to create something both ambiguous and indescribable. Hence the form and plan of Sangath raise questions of formality and ambiguity.
Very much like Khyal – another genre of Hindustani classical music – the building unfolds meticulously yet retains its fluidity through experience and feeling. To reach the partially subterranean studio with its characteristic barrel vaults, one must first pass through a series of spaces intermingled with natural elements. The entire ensemble, with a stepped amphitheatre, water bodies, raised plinths, and the silhouette of the vaults covered in a layer of broken ceramic tiles simultaneously merges with and rises up out of the surrounding landscape.
Doshi's memories of places he visited, of running around the meandering streets of his hometown Pune, of sitting on the plinths around water bodies in small villages, of the fabled Nubian vault he encountered at the sculptor Ramses Wissa Wassef's studio in Egypt – all collide and merge into the landscape. The assemblage of these fragments of experiences makes this project very special and give Sangath's its unique character rooted in memories and associations. Doshi often refers to Sangath as his sanctuary.
Photo by Iwan Baan
Amdavad Ni Gudfa, Ahmedabad, India, 1994
Amdavad Ni Gufa was not a commissioned project, for the idea was born when renowned painter and sculptor Maqbool Fida Husain approached Doshi when seeking a site for an art gallery. They had been friends for many years, and they often met to discuss their different pursuits.
Doshi wanted the Gufa (Gujarati for "cave") to reflect his 35 years of experience and mark a new phase in his career, but Husain's free-spirited attitude posed something of a challenge. While working on the Gufa's design, they began to question fundamental architectural concepts, including the meanings of function, space, structure, form, and technology.
The plan evolved out of a set of intersecting circles and ellipses that led to the creation of an amorphous space like a womb with no beginning and no end. Non-rectilinear surfaces such as an undulating floor, curvilinear walls, domed ceiling, and slanted columns gave the space its enigmatic character. The light apertures of varied sizes together with the painted ceiling are reminiscent of the Buddhist caves carved into the rock at Ajanta dating to the second century. The structure encapsulates and heightens the play of light, form, echo and sound.
This was a period in Doshi's life when he wrote stories and fabricated myths defining the narrative of his design decisions. These myths and stories became his guides and gave a rational explanation to his imaginary world. Gufa is an example of this marriage of the imaginary with the real manifesting in the form of an underground art gallery.
Photo courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation
Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore, India, 1989
Aranya Low Cost Housing was aimed primarily at Indore's "Economically Weaker Sections" (EWS) as well as the city's slum and street dwellers. The challenges were promoting a new model of economic growth and empowerment and improving residents' standards of living after a thorough spatial understanding of spaces and activities in the existing informal settlements.
Doshi's design was executed in collaboration with the Indore Development Authority, the World Bank, and India's Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited. Each unit of the 30-square-metre EWS plots includes a plinth, toilet, and an electrical connection. They were allotted to families by the government using a lottery system. By providing only the essentials, the idea was to empower families to build their own houses and make additions according to their abilities. Sixty sample houses were constructed to demonstrate the different forms the individual homes might take.
Twenty years on, the concept has proved a success. Residents have used their spaces to generate additional income and now belong to the middle-class, accomplishments that bear witness to the economic security land ownership and the virtues of choice, freedom, and social cohesion can provide. Today these houses have become a home and moreover an extension of life of the inhabitants.
By choosing to design for the urban poor, Doshi created a successful example of how society's weaker members can be uplifted – and in doing so he expanded the understanding of the architect's role. Here architecture becomes a catalyst to bring about social change in society by breaking down socioeconomic barriers through a participatory and open-ended approach to design.
Organised by Vitra Design Museum and the Wüstenrot Foundation, with Vastushilpa Foundation, Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People runs from 9 September to 12 December 2020 at Wrightwood 659. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Furniture including chairs, sofas, room dividers and shelving have been added to Dezeen Showroom, which is an affordable space for brands to launch products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience.
Italian brand IOC Project Partners showcases its Solari desk system, which was developed together with architecture firm Gensler.
The workbench has been designed to foster collaboration and can be electronically height-adjusted for both sitting and standing. An optional sound-absorbing screen can be inserted to detract from the bustle of an open-plan office.
Italian architect and designer Antonio Citterio has designed the Tessa armchair for furniture brand Flexform, which features a woven seat and backrest made from paper rush.
The frame of the chair, which is available in solid ash or Canaletto walnut, has been made using joinery techniques that emphasise the wood's natural grain.
Flexform also presents the Gregory sofa designed by Citterio, which is made up of modular units that can be arranged to fit different spaces.
The leather straps, which peek out from under the upholstery, are available in chocolate brown, black or tobacco. The metal finishes come in different variations, including shiny chrome and smoky grey.
British furniture brand ON&ON presents its freestanding shelving system, which is made from recycled aluminium or off-cuts from its production processes.
The side tables, which can be used as a bedside table or a desk pedestal, are made from powder-coated aluminium that can be customised with bespoke colour finishes. The doors are available in oak, walnut or douglas fir.
Sumi and Kyoto are a pair of fabrics by UK textile maker Camira that combine Japanese and Scandinavian aesthetics.
Made from worsted wool fabric, Sumi has been woven from fine marl yarns which creates a graduated colour. Kyoto features a pattern of broken checks that have been printed on the yarn to create texture.
Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience.
As well as benefiting from exposure to Dezeen's three million monthly website visitors, products featured on Dezeen Showroom will be included in our Dezeen Daily newsletter sent to 170,000 subscribers and benefit from Dezeen's incredible SEO.
Dezeen has the highest SEO ranking of any design website with a domain authority of 87, according to SEO analytics service Moz, meaning products listed on Dezeen Showroom are more likely to be found by searchers, while links from Dezeen Showroom to your site will be more valuable than from any other design site.
Posts will remain on the Showroom section indefinitely and will not incur renewal fees once the initial payment has been made for the listing.
Waft this new scent for hints of wood, violet, and… musty paperback? Powell’s Books, the beloved independent shop in Portland, recently announced a limited-edition perfume that smells just like its seemingly endless rows of new and used titles. “This scent contains the lives of countless heroes and heroines. Apply to the pulse points when seeking sensory succor or a brush with immortality,” Powell’s says about the forthcoming release.
Termed an “Eau de bookstore,” the unisex fragrance was spurred by customers saying they missed the aroma of the shop during the ongoing pandemic. The packaging of Powell’s by Powell’s even resembles a bright red hardback that can sit inconspicuously on a shelf with other titles.
If you’re in the United States, you can pre-order a bottle now. As Powell’s notes on Instagram, you’ll smell “like a million books.” (via Kottke)
