RADI Designers - IN ORGANIC
8 SEPTEMBER - 6 OCTOBER 2001
Whippet Bench
Tavolino Table,1999
Ray Stools,1999
ceramics produced in Vallauris by the RADI Designers
Do cut, 2001
Do cut, 2001
Whippet Bench
Peau d'housse, 2001
ceramics produced in Vallauris by the RADI Designers
Ghost Mirror, 2001
Business Class briefcase, 1998
Sandra Gering Gallery is pleased to present the first US solo exhibition of the Paris-based collaborative group Radi Designers. The exhibition will feature several of Radi's signature objects, such as the Whippet Bench and the Business Class briefcase, among other works.
Radi is a concept, not an execution of ideas. It's a design of interpellation and transfiguration, rather than of representation. In other words, it's not about the interpretation of the meaning of an object only, but rather about the many possibilities of its interpretation, the various plays of re-purposing and decontextualization. Among the themes discussed by Radi through their design is that of animation, as in the Whippet Bench, or in the installation Fabulationfor the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. Yes, the bench is a stretched dog (not a lion, and not even a saint!), and the thirty lamps feature animated images with a holographic effect under spy-mirror lampshades. But besides animation there is the theme of the (in)organic, of the (im)possibilities of its simulation, the fascination with its nature, and the techniques for its reproduction. Here, Radi expresses the Zeitgeist of the turn of the millennium, where high tech merges with the real. This is a "remediated" approach to design, using the means of technology while at the same time trying to erase its traces. As a result microscopic views of textures are proposed as the background for an earthly looking Underplate. The organic is furthermore emphasized by randomness and the introduction of the chance factor. The Phantom Vases are created by
three stops, decided randomly by the potter. However, the element of randomness not only constitutes the process of creation, but can also be established by the user. Hence, create your own products and determine their uses by cutting the totem-like column into pieces, as suggested in Do Cut. Radi converses constantly with its potential users, and sharply. It expresses a certain authority. Hey, interact with the world! Objects are meaningful only when they pass from hand to hand: exchange your skin with a chair, as proposed in Peau d'housse. Here the inter-pellation has become literal. Take off your skin!
Text by:
Bernadette Wegenstein
Assistant Professor
Department of Media Study
The University at Buffalo