The Design Line: 29 January – 4 February
The Design Line enters February with a weekly news roundup that includes a preview of the Serpentine Pavilion 2022, Design Miami coming to Paris and a new LGBTQ+ community centre. Read on for your news and analysis digest.
You might find quiet or you might find music down at the Black Chapel (image: Theaster Gates).
Gates are open
Artist, ceramicist and frontman of abstract gospel band The Black Monks, Theaster Gates, has added another string to his already stacked bow with his design for the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion. Called the Black Chapel, the cylindrical installation will provide a venue for a range of events featuring Black musicians. As we enter Black History Month (the US version, the UK’s is in October), it’s good to see a high profile project going to a Black creative. David Adjaye’s practice, Adjaye Associates, is set to assist on the architectural elements, with Gates the first non-architect to be awarded the commission (at least, straightforwardly: the 2012 edition saw Ai Weiwei partnered with Herzog & de Meuron). The design will be simple in construction, with a plywood frame clad in a dark membrane at the top and stained timber around the base. In all other areas, though, there’s a lot going on. There’s an oculus that will frame a view of the (grey) London sky and a bell salvaged from a church in Gates’s hometown of Chicago. The ribbed shape of the chapel is a nod to both the kilns of Stoke-on-Trent and the gasometers of London, while the project is named after an exhibition in Germany from a few years ago. And while Gates says he hopes the pavilion will be a place for “quietude”, he’s also got plans to have a lot of his music pals over for performances. He even has plans to use the space as a recording studio for his vinyl record label. Whew.
Keep it clean
Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a masterpiece. Completed in 1992, the graphic novel tells the story of the Holocaust and its impact upon survivors, with its illustrations rendering Jews as mice and Nazis as cats – a design choice exploring complex ideas of identity, while simultaneously scrutinising Nazi propaganda films depicting Jews as vermin. Horrifying and profound in equal measure, Maus is impeccable, creating one of the most moving and effective accounts of genocide in art and literature. Yet none of that seems to have mattered to the McMinn County School board in Tennessee, which this week was revealed to have voted to remove Maus from its curriculum, citing its “rough, objectionable language” and inclusion of “nudity”. Maus, the board determined, was not suitable for children because of “its depiction of violence and suicide” and they would find alternative materials with which to educate students. Well, best of luck to McMinn County in its bid to teach the Holocaust in a manner that avoids violence. Mike Cochran, a board member, was certainly feeling bullish about their chances of success, however, claiming that, “We can tell them exactly what happened, but we don’t need all the nakedness and all the other stuff.” One wonders precisely what Cochran means by “all the other stuff”, but take solace in the fact that Spiegelman is likely to have the last laugh. As a result of the ban, Maus has returned to Amazon’s best sellers list.
As the philosopher Will Smith once said, “Welcome to Miami Paris” (image: Stefan Giftthaler)
And onto Paris
For the uninitiated, Design Miami can be a confusing event. Given the title, you’d think this collectible design fair takes place in Miami. Which it does – but only half the time. Each November through to December to be precise. It also takes place in Basel every June, where it becomes Design Miami/ Basel or, for short, Design Miami. Oh, and there’s Design Miami/ Podium, which is in Shanghai. Like we said, confusing. But things are only going to become more confusing, because from this year on it will be staging a new annual show in Paris. At a time in which many design events are contracting, Design Miami is growing. The news comes after Paris decided to kick the FIAC art fair out of its regular October slot in the city's Grand Palais, with Design Miami subsequently opting to join its sister event Art Basel in charging into the breach. Adding to this sense of Miami-momentum is news of a new curatorial director for the fair, Maria Cristina Didero, who is taking over the reigns from Wava Carpenter. Didero will be looking after Designs Miami, Basel and Paris, curated according to 2022’s overarching theme of “The Golden Age”. The classical Golden Age, of course, was supposed to have taken place in Arcadia, in southern Greece. So watch out Arcadia! You’re presumably next up for Miamification.
Get someone who looks at you like Masato Sagawa looks at a magnet (image: Element Strategy Initiative).
An attractive accolade
Who is Masato Sagawa? The Japanese scientist invented the neodymium-iron-boron, or Nd-Fe-B magnet – a permanent magnet that is today found in everything from cars to wind turbines, with the Nd-Fe-B magnet industry set to be worth £20bn by 2025. But 78-year-old Sagawa isn’t a household name – yet. The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering – consider it the Nobel Prize for engineers – has named him its 2022 laureate. “This is the biggest prize that I have received so far," Sagawa told the BBC, likely in reference to the Prize’s international scope, although the £500,000 in prize money can’t hurt. But Sagawa’s magnet almost didn’t get made, as Victoria Bruce detailed in her book Sellout. In the 1970s, Sagawa was working at Japanese international Fujitsu and tinkering in their laboratory with his dream of making a rare earth iron permanent magnet. But at the start of the 80s, Fujitsu pivoted to the hot new semiconductor trend and Sagawa was reassigned from his precious magnet project. He kept working on it after hours, but by 1982 was deeply unhappy at work. After getting chewed out by his boss he quit and went to work for Sumitomo, who offered him the budget and team to make his dream a reality. Girlboss behaviour from Sagawa, tbh. Quit your job! Become ungovernable! Invent a magnet!
A safe place to relax in comfort - and style - in an increasingly hostile country (image: Martha Rawlinson).
Neighbourly behaviour
Since 2015, hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity have increased year on year in the UK, while the Council of Europe just released a new report that puts the country in the same category as Hungary, Poland and Russia for attacks on LGBTQ rights.It’s a chilling trend and one that makes clear why resources such as the new LGBTQ+ Community Centre in Southwark, London, are so important. Designed by architect Martha Rawlinson, the centre is designed to offer a safe space that provides the community with essential services and resources. In order to ensure that the centre be as sustainable as possible, Rawlinson and her team specified that that no items of furniture should be bought new for its fit-out. Step forward the design communications agency Zetteler, which began to coordinate donations from around London’s design community. Studios and brands such as De La Espada, Pearson Lloyd, Universal Design Studio, Goldfinger and Benchmark (among many others) have all stepped forward with furniture and furnishings for the space. It’s a heartwarming story, particularly given that the centre currently holds a six-month lease on its space: proving the model and its social value is vital to its long-term success. Ensuring that the centre is properly equipped is a fine start towards helping it perform its invaluable work.
Be not afraid (of the metaverse) – now you can experience Notre Dame in VR glory (image: Orange/Emissive—Eternelle Notre-Dame).
Yeah I have NFTs – Nice French Temples
The loss of Notre Dame in the 2019 fire was a tragedy. But the ashes had barely cooled before the real drama started. First there was the argument over whether a competition would be held for an architect to redesign the spire, which led to a lot of silly (if quite fun) proposals from architects getting trigger-happy with the render gun. To the relief of traditionalists, the French government promised Our Lady of Paris would be faithfully restored to her original state. There was more pearl-clutching (courtesy of The Telegraph) when it was revealed that – quelle horreur – there are plans afoot for a more accessible visitor experience. Apparently, the church will be a “woke Disneyland” because of some multi-lingual murals and a few light installations. The Design Line personally feels the designers should just go the whole hog and restore Notre Dame to how it looks in the 1996 Disney classic, complete with singing gargoyles. Now the church is moving into the metaverse with a virtual reality exhibition that is running until the end of February. Visitors can don a headset and enjoy looking at some really high resolution shots of how the cathedral looked pre-fire, with 30 per cent of ticket sales going towards offsetting the estimated £1bn price tag of the renovation. No one tell The Telegraph or they might have a conniption. Anyway, with the rate things are going, we can’t be far off from getting a Notre Dame NFT. Maybe a cathedral-themed cryptocurrency could help them raise those restoration funds.