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Everything old is new again: many works in the Cooper-Hewitt's current survey of contemporary American design advance concepts in their respective fields by mining the past - Design
Art in America, Dec, 2003 by Stephanie Cash
The second Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial has a decidedly different feel than the first. Compared to works in the inaugural exhibition, which were more "blobular" and sleek, those in the museum's current roundup of recent American design have a funky, homemade quality. Many of the works reuse design motifs or materials from earlier periods, giving the show an overall nostalgic quality, but in a decidedly fresh manner. Titled "Inside Design Now," the survey encompasses everything from home interiors to an artificial heart. The focus remains on experimental projects--whether imaginative recycling or hypothetic innovation--that are advancing design concepts, technology and research without forgetting esthetic appeal.
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Overall, the show seems a bit subdued this time and goes more behind the scenes than its predecessor [see A.i.A., July '00], perhaps making it more appealing to design professionals and aficionados than to a product-crazed consumerist public. Considering that the show was planned amid a stalled economy and in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the understated tone seems appropriate for the country's current mood. Some 80 designers or firms are represented in more than 300 examples selected by staff curators Ellen Lupton (who also designed the catalogue) and Donald Albrecht, along with independent consultant Susan Yelavich, and Mitchell Owens, interior design director at Elle Decor.
Noticeably improved this time around, the installation design is less combative with the museum's Beaux-Arts interior than it was in the first show, and less distracting as a result. Instead of trying to hide or overcome the museum's architecture, exhibition designers Sandra Wheeler and Alfred Zollinger of Matter Practice opted to display many of the works straightforwardly in the ornate spaces. Heightening the disjunction are Paula Scher's linoleum floor mats in the entry hall and elevator and on the second-floor landing, as well as text painted on the elevator's doors and interior, that look like giant chalkboards with handwritten directions mapping out the exhibition and the world beyond. Yet video pieces--always problematic even in larger spaces--are not shown at their best, many of them grouped in one upstairs gallery. To tame the potential cacophony, some of the videos are playing without sound--presumably because the focus is on the visual--but this only cheats the visual experience in cases where sound is surely integral to the overall impact.
Though a fair number of established names are included in the show--Peter Eisenman, Gaetano Pesce, Ted Muehling and Asymptote among them--some of the most interesting selections are by less familiar designers or firms. Demonstrating that design doesn't happen in a cultural vacuum, some projects reveal a social conscience. Wave Garden is an ambitious proposal by Yusuke Obuchi that involves a huge floating artificial landscape that would act as a renewable power plant off the coast of California. During the week, floating tiles would generate energy through piezoelectricity, a 19th-century technology that is used to power quartz watches. The level of consumption during the week would determine the site's configuration on the weekend. If consumption is low, the floating tiles would rise and create a stable recreational landscape for residents. If consumption is high, it would remain an inaccessible power plant and a reminder of wasteful habits. Another socially minded project is paraSITE by artist Michael Rakowitz. The artist worked with the homeless to develop portable shelters made from white garbage bags. The $5 shelters are inflated and heated by attaching a long tube to the heating ducts or steam vents of buildings. Based in Raleigh, N.C., Bryan Bell's nonprofit company, Design Corps, hires recent architecture graduates under the auspices of AmeriCorps, a national service organization that builds affordable housing, among other things; the team is included for its tasteful mobile homes for migratory workers.
Another maker of architecture-on-a-budget is Dennis Wedlick, who uses prefab, standard-issue materials in designs that play on traditional domestic architecture. Prospect New Town is a housing development in Longmont, Colo., created by developer Kiki Wallace and architect Mark Sofield. The novel subdivision features Queen Anne, Tudor and Craftsman bungalows along with colorful modernist examples inspired by Bauhaus and local farming and mining structures. Residents have addresses on streets with such names as Incorrigible Circle and Half Measures Drive.
Moving to home interiors, David and Sandy Wasco are included for their work on the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson, highlights of which are shown on a video monitor. The couple restored a Harlem brownstone that served as the home of the dysfunctional family, designing the characters' rooms to be unmistakable manifestations of their offbeat personalities. Similarly quirky are real-life interiors by Diamond + Baratta, whose cartoonish schemes utilize and exaggerate historical motifs and traditional home decor, such as 60-foot long hooked rugs. Interior designer and Nest magazine founder Joseph Holtzman has created a wildly patterned and upholstered room in the museum in which visitors can relax and peruse back issues of his design journal, which is both an enticing object and an informative resource.
