Amelia’s Magazine | Urs Fischer: Molding Objects to Imperfection

6All Photographs courtesy of New Museum, viagra buy except where otherwise stated

It is now time for the absurd to take center stage. Swiss-born “imperfectionist” Urs Ficher makes the gallery goer rethink his or her own reality and I am grateful to the New Museum for introducing me to this brilliant artist. Ficher is an artist renown for his non-traditional creations. Thinking the world as a populated center of objects that interact and create an artificial reality, his aim is to call the viewer’s attention to his singular inner realm; his interpretations of what this life is are conveyed through different types of installations. New productions and iconic works are aplenty and together compose a series of gigantic still life and walk-in tableaux choreographed entirely by the artist. I find myself exploring neither a traditional survey nor a retrospective but the culmination of four years of work. These new productions reveal the true scope of Fischer’s universe and I am enthralled by what I am discovering.

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Above photograph courtesy of Vanesa Krongold

Fischer has taken over all the three floors of the museum. Illusion and reality are intertwined in the artist ‘s show thanks to a game of trading places and multiple reflections. Chrome boxes are arranged in a grid of monoliths that create a cityscape of mirrored cubes onto which the artist has silk screened a dizzying array of images. I think it’s perfect; It’s just how I’ve been feeling when walking about New York city – drunk from trying to take it all in! It is very interesting how the artist plays with bi dimensions; I am strangely attracted by some disregarded toys. Its all about combining the reality through dimensions, perspectives, and collage. The viewer is thrust into an uneasy place, trying to understand how to walk in this new world. The hyper real state of the objects are meant to represent your and my reality…

72009 Plaster, paint, bread 10 x 21 x 15 cm.

Urs Fischer presents an installation that turns the Museum’s architecture into an image of itself—a site-specific trompe l’oeil environment. In a maddening reproduction exercise, each square inch of the Museum architecture has been photographed and reprinted as a wallpaper that covers these very same walls and ceiling it is meant to portray. A piano occupies the room, appearing to melt under the pressure of some invisible force. Simultaneously solid and soft like a Salvador Dalí painting in three dimensions, this sculpture seems to succumb to a dramatic process of metamorphosis.

8Marguerite de Ponty.

On the fourth floor, Fischer presents five new aluminum sculptures cast from small clays and hand-molded by the artist. Hanging from the ceiling or balancing awkwardly in space, these massive abstractions resemble strange cocoons or a gathering of enigmatic monuments. Fischer is an engineer of imaginary worlds who has in the past created sculptures in a rich variety of materials, including unstable substances such as melting wax and rotting vegetables. In a continuous search for new plastic solutions, Fischer has built houses out of bread and given life to animated puppets; he has dissected objects or blown them out of proportion in order to reinvent our relationship to them.

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In 2007, in a now-legendary exhibition, he excavated the floor of his New York gallery, digging a crater within the exhibition space. Throughout his work, with ambitious gestures and irreverent panache, Fischer explores the secret mechanisms of perception, combining a Pop immediacy with a Neo-Baroque sense for the absurd. And I am glad a taste of it!

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The exhibition Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty is ending on February the 7th, 2010. The New Museum is a modern building located in 235 Bowery Street, New-York.

Categories ,Absurd, ,Aluminium, ,art, ,Art space, ,baroque, ,Clay, ,contemporary art, ,Exhibition Review, ,Hand molded, ,installation, ,Material, ,New Museum, ,new york, ,organic, ,review, ,Salvator Dali, ,sculpture, ,Still Life, ,surrealism, ,toy, ,Urs Fischer

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Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with Designer Laszlo Tompa

Lazlo Tompa

The title of this post is a little misleading as Laszlo Tompa is more than just a Designer. Not just a Ceramist or a Craftsman, he is more like a materials ‘magician’. His creations are half homeware item and half magic trick, and his Spiral Puzzle Box is particularly enchanting.

Having studied at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary, Laszlo has a real knack with clay and wood as well as a killer eye for design. Geometric shapes and space are his obsessions, and his wood pieces are all sensually smooth and designed right down to the smallest detail.

Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa

His wooden pieces fall into the following categories: Flower Hanging Lamps, Hydro Lamps, Cube Illusion and Spiral Box. The Flower Hanging Lamps are made from solid cherry wood with hexagonal and pentagonal pyramids forming the main structure. Light only points downwards in these nifty little ceiling lovers. His Hydro Lamps, inspired by ocean creatures that emit light, are made from solid wood, but have more of a deep sea vibe than than their flowery counterparts. These beauties let shards of light out in the main body of the lamp, unlike their floral brothers and sisters.

Cube Illusion is a wooden box with a lid, and looks a bit like a giant Ferrero Rocher (minus the golden foil). It’s a design sculpture and homeware piece made of complex shapes that appears to house a small space, but in actual fact is surprisingly roomy. The Spiral Box is part gargantuan snail, part labyrinth; at first impossible to open, patience and persistence lead to the discovery of a hidden drawer. I spoke to Laszlo about his talent for materials, his amazing creations and how he knew these nifty concepts would work.

Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa

How did you become interested in ceramics?
I had no special influence in my childhood. I encountered clay for the first time in a school workshop and I loved its limitless ductility. At Art High-School I spent time in the Department of Ceramics. After this I learned everything I know about clay at university.

Laszlo Tompa
Laszlo Tompa

You also work with wood, how did you first develop a love for this material?
Both my grandfather and my father were Craftsmen who did a lot of woodwork in their free time. As a child, I was delighted to see them shape wood and create new objects. Through several generations in our family, the wood-turning lathe was as common as a refrigerator in other families. Despite this, I was more attracted to ceramics, though I have enjoyed rediscovering wood during the past two years.

Laszlo Tompa

Do you find you find switching between materials difficult?
My starting point is the form, and I choose the material based on that. I think all Designers have to know the properties of the materials. I have no problem with changing materials.

Geometric shapes are a big feature of your work, have you always been interested in space and shape?
I’ve always liked Maths. While studying Ceramics I realised that tile geometry and tessellation is really interesting. After I realised this, I spend years studying it, and later I turned to designing 3D tiles.

Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa

Your work is really well thought out, what process do you go through to get to a finished piece?
Luckily I have a lot of ideas. Out of these I choose some that are worth pursuing. I make several 3D models on computer. When they are good enough I produce a prototype and I refine the ratios. For example this is how the computer version of Cube Illusion was created.

Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa

What kind of furniture is your own home filled with?
I prefer Scandinavian-style furniture.

How did you get the idea for Spiral Box?
I was interested in spiral forms at university and I studied all kinds of twisted plant shapes. Spiral Box was designed long after these. The idea came to my mind after studying the form of a worm. Preparation of the prototype was very difficult and complicated.

Lazlo Tompa
Lazlo Tompa

What have you got lined up for the year ahead?
I would like to return to tile geometry and make wooden wall tiles. I plan to exhibit them at the end of the summer and I have confidence that they will have similar success to my former works.

Lazlo Tompa

To see more of Laszlo‘s work check out his site www.tompakeramia.hu. All photos were provided by Laszlo Tompa.

Categories ,ceramics, ,Clay, ,copying lathe, ,craft, ,design, ,form, ,Furniture, ,geometry, ,jessicasrcook, ,Lazlo-Tompa, ,Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, ,shapes, ,Space, ,Spiral box, ,tile, ,wood, ,Woodcraft, ,woodturner

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Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with Yasmin Dilekkaya of Yas-Ming Ceramics

Yas Ming ceramics by Lauren KellyYas -Ming by Lauren Kelly

I’m a big fan of collaborations and the wonders they can produce, and Yas-Ming Ceramics is no exception. Begotten from a project between Yasmin Dilekkaya and Ming Wai Sun during their time at University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, these animal mugs, bowls and other items could give the Urban Outfitters homeware section a run for its money. Talking-pieces as well as beautiful kitchen thingymabobs, their handcrafted ceramics are slip-cast, with press moulding and hand building also used in their creation.

Yas Ming
Yas Ming  (1)

Fun is vital part of the brand and the product lines are named accordingly: Moo Cups, Rawr Bowls, Oink, Squeak and Nay. The mugs are my fave, available with an animal head or a bum on the mug instead of a handle, you can choose from a delicate giraffe, fierce lion, stern horse, cute pig, grumpy cow and majestic ram. There’s all sorts of other stuff too including bowls with animal faces and posteriors, dishes with adorable characters patiently watching you munch down your nosh, and even little ceramic chopstick holders that let your eating implements have a quick rest.

Having bumped into Yas at the Ohh Deer Pop-Launch and spent an evening with her talking about ceramics, I can confirm that not only are the products from this exquisite little brand lovely, but the people behind it are too. I spoke to Co-Founder Yasmin Dilekkaya about mugs with bums and getting a creative company off the ground.

Yas Ming
Yas Ming

Can you tell me a little about both yourself and Ming?
We met while we where studying on an Applied Arts degree, Ming Wai was born in Hong Kong and is now living in the UK with her husband and daughter. I have a Turkish Cypriot background, but born and grew up in England. Our multicultural backgrounds were a stimulus and inspiration to us while designing and making at university.

Yas Ming by Lilly Allen
Yas-Ming by Lilly Allen

How did you get the idea for the mugs? 
In our final year at uni, as a year group, we had to raise money for our end of year Graduate Show. At this point I was making a set of Turkish coffee cups and Ming Wai was making beautifully elaborate 3D ceramic picture frames that had animals coming out of them.  We had the idea of attaching the animals to the cups so we had a product that we could sell around university.  The cups were really popular so after Graduation we decided to see how much further we could push the idea.

Yas Ming
Yas Ming ceramics by Lauren Kelly
Yas -Ming by Lauren Kelly

Why did you start making the mugs with ‘bums’?
In the beginning we experimented a lot with cutting the animals in half and seeing where they worked on the cups/bowls and we thought it was a fun idea to have bums as handles as well as the heads.

Which events have you been at in the last year, and what do you have planned for future?
In the past year we have been part of lots of great events from trade shows to markets and pop-up shops. We have had the opportunity to work with some fantastic organisations. Highlights include being selected by The Secret Emporium to be part of their Christmas Market and their Boxpark Pop-Up. Also, exhibiting in Launchpad at Pulse, getting to meet lots of new potential stockists and being part of the Ohh Deer Pop-up where we have been asked to run a ceramic workshop. We have another pop-up with Crafty Fox and Brixi next month, with lots to look forward to in the coming months.

Yas Ming
Yas Ming

What kind of reactions do the pieces usually get? 
They generally get a great reaction, sometimes it takes a while for people to register what they are looking at, and you can watch as their face goes from confused to a smile. There are always lots of smiles, laughter, and people love to pick them up and try out holding them.

Can you explain the process that goes into making the mugs?
We use moulds to cast the animals and moulds to cast the cups/bowls/dishes, once they are out of their moulds the two pieces are carefully attached together by hand and put into the kiln for the first firing. They then get glazed and put into the kiln for a second time.

Yas Ming by Lilly Allen 2
Yas-Ming by Lilly Allen

Is handcrafting your products important to you, or do you think in future you would consider mass-production? 
It is important to us, we use traditional techniques and are proud that each piece is touched and crafted by the hand of a skilled craftsperson. It gives the work personality and quirks that you would not get from factory mass-production.

Yas Ming
Yas Ming

Do you have a favourite animal?
That’s such a hard question, I have favourite animals for different products. I like the Rat Oink because I like the way he looks when he has sauce in the dish. The Cow Rawr is also a favourite, I use it for my cereal most days. The Giraffe Moo I also love as it’s is beautifully elegant.

What’s the greatest challenge of setting up a business? 
Like a lot of new businesses we have had a huge amount of challenges, ours were mostly kiln problems and production issues at the start. Now we have some great people in Stoke helping us produce the products, the challenges have changed.

How do you take your tea? 
Two sugars and not much milk.

Yas Ming
Yas Ming by Nikki Miles
Yas-Ming by Nikki Miles

To get your hands on these Baa-utiful ceramics, check out the Yas-Ming website at www.yas-ming.co.uk

Categories ,animals, ,Applied Arts, ,Boxpark, ,Brixi, ,cast, ,chopsticks, ,Clay, ,Crafty Fox, ,glazed, ,Graduate Show, ,graduation, ,Homeware, ,jessicasrcook, ,Lauren Kelly, ,Lilly Allen, ,moulds, ,Mugs, ,Nikki Miles, ,Ohh Deer, ,Pulse, ,The Secret Emporium, ,trade shows, ,workshop, ,Yas-Ming, ,Yasmin Dilekkaya

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