collection of murano glass at the design museum, london
28 september to 4 november 2001
for centuries, the artisans of murano have produced some
of the world’s finest glass with exquisite colours and shapes,
but their work has long been associated with the kitsch
venice tourist trade.
eager to modernise murano, covo, asked french designer,
emmanuel babled, to commission a collection of murano
pieces from eight other designers.
covo, an italian company combines contemporary designers
with skilled artisans to create beautiful objects in traditional
materials.
the chosen designers, along with babled, are: jeffrey bernett,
stephen burks, richard hutten, stefano giovannoni, james irvine,
ritsue mishima, marre moerel and jerszy seymour.
some, like ritsue mishima, are accomplished glassmakers.
others, such as richard hutten, james irvine and jerszy seymour,
had never worked in glass before.
each designer worked with a different murano workshop
depending on the type of glass they wished to produce.
the bold, modern forms of their designs shows off the vivid
colours and delicate tones of murano glass to perfection.
stefano giovannoni created a trio of polifemo,
comic book creatures-cum-vases in shiny glass.
jerszy seymour produced seven vases featuring ken kuts,
his 'hooligan alter-ego' whose cartoon-style adventures were
etched into the hot, soft glass with a knife.
while ritsue mishima harnessed her skills to create vegetali,
a series of five vases.
produced in limited editions of no more than 99 examples
of each design, the smash collection will be available
exclusively in the uk from the design museum shop.
http://www.designmuseum.org
http://www.covo.it
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'caption', cylinders by james irvine
anatomy series by marre moerel
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