#HTE

Can Beauty be the Driving Force for Innovation? Highlights from Cooper Hewitt’s 2016 Design Triennial 

Beauty, the fifth installment of the Cooper Hewitt’s design triennial series evolves around a central question: “Why beauty now?” While we’ve grown accustomed to seeking out design work that answers our society’s most demanding questions with big-picture answers, the 63 designers exhibited in the show present an alternative take—one that pursues the sensual side of design. 

The exhibition progresses through seven core themes—extravagant, intricate, ethereal, transgressive, emergent, elemental and transformative—with more than 250 works that range from fashion ensembles, to experimental prototypes, interactive digital media and architectural structures. The global mix of designers present an eclectic take on tradition and forward-thinking processes in compelling works that construct narratives about the very essence of making. The concept of beauty emerges as far more than an unwelcome taboo in the design world, but rather as a vital force that stimulates society on a deep, fundamental level. As the show curators Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps elaborate, the true magic of beauty is that it’s experience, “is visceral and embodied, not just visual. Beauty strikes the senses. It erupts from sensual invention, and adds endless value to the world we inhabit.”

Beauty is on view now through August 21, 2016 at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City

A Million Times by Humans Since 1982

This large, hypnotizing digital clock greets you at the beginning of the exhibit with coordinating hands which align once every minute to read the time in numerals.

Photo credit: Core77

Smell Lab by Sissel Tolaas

The scent artist, chemist and researcher recreated a part of her Berlin-based laboratory, where she collects and preserves scent molecules from around the world. For the Triennial, Tolaas was commissioned to create a scent based on different areas of Central Park. The resulting fragrance lines the entrance wall and welcomes visitors with a sensorial surprise.

Photo credit: Core77

Spotted Nyonya Series by Hans Tan, 2015

Hans Tan’s series of porcelain vessels are meant to “invoke feelings of heritage, consumption, and materiality"— each traditionally decorated ceramic piece is sandblasted by Tan in modern graphic patterns while simultaneously revealing the white porcelain underneath.

Photo credit: Core77

Dam C Coat by Mary Katrantzou

Fashion designer Katrantzou utilizes unconventional materials for a coat from her Fall/Winter 2015 Collection— made using wool, polyester, pvc, and silk.

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Atmoshperic Reentry by Maiko Takeda

Takeda combines her work as a milliner and jewelry designer in the Atmospheric Reentry series—using thinly shredded acetate pieces tinted with color gradients, the works create an ethereal protective aura for the wearer.

Photo credit: Core77

Goliath Wall Hanging by Hechizoo Textiles

The weaving atelier Hechizoo are known for work that mixes natural fibers with unconventional materials such as copper and steel wire to create layered textiles that filter and reflect light. This particular piece is inspired by the rainforest, incorporating imagery of the pirarucú (the largest fish in the Amazon) and the tactility of porcupine quills.

Photo credit: Core77

Cabinet from the Engineering Temporality series by Tuomas Markunpoika

The fragile form of this ghostly cabinet was conceived as a tribute to the designer’s grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Markunpoika wrapped a traditional wooden cabinet with rings of tubular steel and burned away the cabinet to leave an empty shell, or a vestige of a former self. "I am not solely concerned about functionality, but more about the metaphysics in design, and how phiosophy can resonate through object,” he notes.

Photo credit: Core77

Jungle Scenery 2 necklace by Terhi Tolvanen

The Finnish designer makes jewelry that juxtaposes unconventional materials to explore the impact of culture on nature. In the Jungle Scenery series, she creates intricate, knotted necklaces made of wood branches and painted pearls.

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Architecture is Everywhere by Sou Fujimoto

This series of small models by the Japanese architect “is kind of a funny trial to expand our ideas of architecture beyond our usual understanding,” as he explains. Using common and overlooked materials such as staples, lottery tickets and binder clips, Fujimoto created exploratory structures and then imagined how they might function as architecture by animating them with scale model figures. The installation is juxtaposed with images of Fujimoto’s built work.

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Afreaks is a series of beaded sculptures and objects made using geometric patterns found in nature, such as coral formations. The beading was done by women from the Khayelitsha settlement in South Africa (known as the Haas Sisters) who helped the designer conceptualize the final forms.

Photo credit: Core77