glass chair, 1976
kuramata wanted to go beyond the limits of the material
world; he tried to make things disappear, and repeatedly
created 'borderline objects' at the critical point of
transformation where 'material becomes light, weight
becomes air' (ettore sottsass). this chair strikes a last
moment pose before dissolving its 'objectness, (the deft
handling of the glass plates minimising any joining seams,
which kuramata considered 'visual impurities.')
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furniture with drawers, 1967
kuramata once mentioned of 'nagahibachi',
a japanese traditional furniture with multi functions:
cooking, heating, and keeping objects in drawers.
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'miss blanche', created for KAGU tokyo designer’s week '88
was inspired by tennessee williams' play 'a streetcar named
desire'. kuramata wanted the cheap artificial red roses
floating in perspex acrylic to represent the frailty and vanity of
blanche dubois. somehow kuramata seemed to identify with
her, perhaps because of his own childhood nickname
usotsuki shiro 'fibster shiro'. |
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'cabinet de curiositè', 1989
working with tinted perspex acrylics, which delineated
form while creating an illusion of liquid space,
kuramata discovered the principle of neiro 'sound-colour'.
for him, music was the ultimate artform because it
remained in no one's possession after its performance. |
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furniture 'irregular form',1970
kuramata did not talk much, but he liked to make
people laugh. he wanted to surprise and subvert
'common sense'. for him, function need not define the form
of furniture, nor did the utility of an object necessarily derive
from its rational function. this sense of humour liberates a
chest of drawers from its traditional form.
these chests of drawers were made in two variations:
black-and-white and red-and-white. |
pyramid furniture, 1968
kuramata had a great passion for pieces with
drawers. when friends and journalists asked
why, he would answer coyly, 'maybe I hope
to find what I didn't put in them.'
he was also known to remark, 'if I knew
how to express myself in words, why would
I have to design things?'). |
'luminous chair', 1969
kuramata wanted to design light itself and to have a
person sit on light as a chair.
once, when asked what he thought was the most
important thing in life, he replied, 'the sun!'.
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'luminous table', 1969
translucent white plastic sheet with lighting element inside,
superimposing an aspect of nascent internal illumination
onto the primary function of the object. |
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'how high the moon', W seater, 1986
kuramata wanted to be free from gravity; he wanted
to take us to the vanishing point where matter becomes
immaterial. speed was one vector in his quest for lightness
and transparency, the expanded metal used and totally
transformed here being a common material for motorway
guardrails. |
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'laputa', 1991
kuramata was asked to design a bedroom for the
exhibition 'dolce stil novo' held in florence.
named after hayao miyazaki's animated film based on
jonathan swift's floating island, 'laputa' is the only bed
he ever designed. working from the stereotypical
metal-frame hospital bed. kuramata transform a bed into
an existential device. dreams, for kuramata, were
another reality to be lived. |
'placebo', 1989
for Kuramata, perspex acrylic served to
transform solid matter into light, liquid or gas.
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'acrylic stool with feathers', 1990
conceived for the gallery-store spiral in tokyo, the subtle
dance of feathers introduces the element of time,
suggesting an object in motion. despite its apparent
lightness, it is extremely heavy. |
'sedia seduta', 1984
a reflection of kuramata's sense of irony :
'even a chair wants to seat on a chair
sometimes'.
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flower vases, 1989
shown for an exhibition in paris. in his later years after
creating 'miss blanche', kuramata was fascinated by
perspex acrylic: its reflective qualities and color,
its absolute transparency, even its temperature to the
touch, neither cold nor warm. he inserted labortory test
tubes as receptacles for flowers. |
perfume bottle, 1991
designed for the issey miyake perfume product line,
but never put into production. several prototypes were
made.
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'copacabana', 1988
kuramata was invited along with six others to design a
handbag for the exhibition 'petites architectures nomades'
organized by j&f martell at the galerie yves gastou in paris.
the smallest work of architecture that can travel freely. |
fumiko ito, co-curator of the exhibition
(together with carla sozzani and paul hughes) |
