design for a change

Changes on a global level have kept me occupied lately. To showcase New Zealand design today seems a contrast, yet I find Shane's work both crossing the boundaries of Art and his personal heritage interesting: Shane has Danish, Chinese and Maori ancestors. Isn't it wondrous how we human beings travel the globe and embrace other cultures?


I have been a fan of Shane Hansen's work ever since I came across it several years ago visiting the Gallery The Poi Room in Auckland. I have to find the NZ wood pigeon below as it really speaks to me.

Te Karanga Pitoitoi

Korihi ake nga manu

Takiri mai te ata

Ka ao, ka oa, ka awatea!

Tihei mauri ora

 

The birds call

The day begins

And I am alive


A bit of background on how Shane works: "Shane Hansen likes a strong, clean line. He has drawn constantly for as long as he can remember, but has never indulged in intricate doodles dredged up from the dark recesses of the mind. Instead, his creations spring from a world of bold colours and optimistic clarity, a pop-art invitation to a feel-good New-Zealand celebration." (source Shane's website: here)

"Shane studied art at high school but began his professional life as a fashion designer. He commandeered the sewing machine on which his mother had worked from home churning out nylon jackets and created the label Vampire. (..) He then trained as a graphic designer, eventually combining these two disciplines at Fly, where he was co-founder and creative director, carving out a niche creating innovative marketing and design strategies for corporate clients and retail stores." (source here - Gallery De Novo)

The scrummy bovine series is both hilarious as it is captivating. Shane used to make quite a bit commercial work whereas nowadays he works from home and focuses on his Art.

The bike must be son Nikau's one I imagine!

"The environment Shane grew up in was rich in culture. The walls of the Hansen family home in Manurewa were covered in paintings by Shane's grandfather and great-grandfather, both of Danish origins and both amateur water-colourists. Shane's grandfather took his descendants on painting expeditions that actively encouraged deeper contemplation and appreciation of the landscapes and objects around them.

His mother's side of the family is a mixture of Chinese and Maori influences. His grandfather emigrated to New Zealand from China's Guangdong province and established a market garden in Pukekohe before starting what became a family of 14 children with Shane's grandmother, a woman of Tainui descent. Creativity seems to run deep on both sides of the family" (source: Shane's website)

Shane work is definitely colorful and has a clear identity. It is expressive and focused. Its boldness and presence for me are very much linked to the relative young country that is New Zealand, the ruggedness of the mountains, the clarity of its waters and the brave attitude of its people.

An in depth interview with Shane can be read on a different blog: here.

for the love of Ply

Nishimura restaurant interior by Hong Kong based CL3 Architects. The restaurant is located inside the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing, China

I didn't want to bore you to tears with more stuff on interiors, but this is kinda 'hot':

the world of Ply.

The grindy tech info reads:

"PLYWOOD was invented in the 1850s as a combination of three or more layers of wood. Cheap and easily accessible, it has been an important medium for experimentation by modernist designers from the 1920s onwards. Many important examples of modernist furniture were made in plywood as it's cheaper and more easily accessible than aluminium or steel.

Plywood consists of at least three layers or veneers of wood which have been plied together with the grain running crosswise to add strength and resilience. The earliest examples of plywood furniture date back to the 18th century, but it was not until the 1850s that it was put into commercial production by John Henry Belter, a German emigré to the US."
source: designmuseum

Always those immigrants doing their stuff.... (wink wink)

Well in these days, climate, atmosphere, worldly turbulence, we go back to the basics. I'm sure you've heard this before but today we are onto Ply, the so called P-factor (not to confuse with the amphetamines.)

To be precise: Design loves Depression

"Design tends to thrive in hard times. In the scarcity of the 1940s, Charles and Ray Eames produced furniture and other products of enduring appeal from cheap materials like plastic, resin and plywood, and Italian design flowered in the aftermath of World War II. "

New York Times

Charles and Ray Eames chair 'Lounge chair wood' from 1945

Charles and Ray Eames 'Lounge chair and ottoman' 1956

French kitchen, from loftmagazine

Will today’s designers rise to the occasion?

Here in New Zealand ply is looked upon as a structural good timber, but generally not as the 'showing' material to use but that seems to be changing. Below's art work is by Shane Hansen's; "Buzz" available from the Poi Room in Auckand (where I first spotted it in the flesh - love it), and shows what else we can do with plywood. His work is clean, striking and makes you look again. Iconic kiwi-dom.

Roger Kelly's Speed chair is made of ply and the back of the chair incorporates a small shelf for book storage. Nifty hey. (He's another Clever Bastard.)

David Trubridge is also not afraid to use ply as it's one of the materials he likes to use a lot, in his latest work he's switched to bamboo. His work has shown at Milan and his pieces are available nationwide from his stockists, for example Essenze gallery in Parnell, Auckland and from Whiteroom here in Dunedin.

So for the love of Ply: admire it's simplicity, its' ability to bend and it's colour and lightness. Essentials baby.