slashstroke

[slashstroke]

PETER SCHAMAUN INTERVIEW WITH /- 

A Brief bio/background/who are you?I did my BA and MA at the Fashion Academy in Antwerp in Belgium. Before this I did the foundation course at CSM and at an art school in Oslo. During my years in Antwerp I formed a collective with three friends and we showed our collection over two summers as ‘Incipit’ in Oslo, Stockholm, Milan and Paris.

Describe what you do?I ‘work’ in the fashion industry; I’ve just finished my education and I don’t get any money from what I do yet, so I guess you could call it work. I will have my first solo show at Copenhagen Fashion Week A/W16.

How did you arrive at this?It’s a mystery for me; I have no idea. I remember very well the day I decided, I just told my parents while having dinner that I would get a fashion education and I did it. I’m satisfied that it was such a light and easy decision for me. 

How easy or hard is it?(Laughs) I don’t know, a bit of both but much more hard. It might even get harder… We’ll see after this show. I hope people will like it.

What would you change about your industry, your work, you?Discussing what to change about me or my work could become a very ‘stare in the mirror with dramatic music playing in the background’ conversation (laughs). ‘The industry’ is a reflection of a certain situation. As it is now, it exists as something with the potential for new discoveries or new ways of operating. Calling the industry an ‘it’ is perhaps oversimplification, as people make it exist. It is a fictional construct, as with all other ‘conscious’ human production.The people in the industry can change and hopefully new people would have different perspectives than before. This would make it more exciting than just having the same thing all over again. The people running it should be more open to developing themselves, not going around with the fixed philosophy of  ‘this is how the world is’ or ‘this is how the industry is’. For me this is, to be honest, the saddest thing I could hear. I guess it’s not only fashion or Higher Education that have failed, but also a lack of basic understanding at basic primary school level. I have to admit it feels like few people are willing to change or willing to make the extra effort in this industry. So far, of the little I have seen, there is too much respect for banal rules, or too much misinterpretation of these rules. We are luckier than other generations or other parts of the world nowadays in that there is no other person that will take your life for asking to, or trying to, redefine a common situation. So can you do something about this, or is this just how the world is? Of course this is not how the world is, that would be a tragedy.

Is there a plan?A little one, of course: not to be completely lost but very open towards unplanned things; so a very normal plan. Not trying to think so much about it. But I definitely have some goals I would like to reach.

Is the process from idea to product or output a changing one, or a routine one?I haven’t arrived at a full routine yet but I have started seeing more clearly how I need my mind to be for each different step of the process. Also, somehow knowing the mind-set in which I don’t manage to work or produce. This doesn’t mean that it’s a full routine, I like that is sometimes uncontrollable; it makes the tension a bit higher which I think is good with regards to the stage I am at now.

Is there always an audience/ character/ market in mind, an external audience?I can only say from the position I am in now, so I guess the audience is the people that work in fashion. I work as a human, for humans, with humans in mind. The audience takes what they need. For my part, I don’t choose them nor is this of any interest to me, as it wouldn’t benefit or differentiate my work. All the marketing of human behavior is, for me, very banal as I don’t see how or why so much importance is placed on different labels.The situation is that I make garments for all humans not just humans who are ‘x’ or ‘y’; it just happens to be the case that certain people are more willing to see the work.  Just to say that I don’t want to have a specific audience or market in mind, it’s not necessary, I’m thankful to anyone who is interested.Fashion needs references, so everybody understands ‘what is what’ i.e. It is for this kind of person: a fisherman, a worker, a sassy girl walking down the street. We need to understand that ‘it is this kind of garment’, so you think of everything that is needed for a bomber jacket and you automatically make it the ‘bomber story’ in your head. It’s as if the ‘judges of fashion’, those who are important in the industry, are dependent on this kids’ puzzle, where you have to fit the shape of the object in the right shaped hole.It doesn’t make sense that a garment is for something or for someone, an audience or a market, even as vital protection. Fashion confuses matters and represents a hypothetical existence, as well as offering a common methodology, a kind of ‘synchronised omnipresence’.

Explain the relationship between art/creativity and establishment/industry, can the two co-exist? Is successful work diffused work?I am not sure that I care so much about this industry when I make. No, absolutely not, I just have a different audience. You have also the problem with academia, the whole creative school. There is a fear in education; they tremble and shake more than ever. I think students also feel it, they are afraid, both individually and collectively, of losing their position and it’s way too complex for them to manage on their own. They are dependent on the ‘fictiveness’ of what is around us in the industry. It is very difficult to handle as there is nothing more than ‘this is how the world is’ to grasp. So what happens is there is massive confusion and that starts a long chain of confusion. There is nothing in this sense ‘correct’ in an establishment, since it doesn’t really exist.  Who do we think we are that we owe ourselves something or that our surroundings do? Students wants to fit in, in the same way that the schools want to fit in, but none of them know what they want to fit into, they just feel that fitting in is the key to achieving ‘something’. Apparently, I need to fit into ‘something’ so someone recognises it within their own frame of reference, so they have the chance to understand it, so they can tell me if its good or bad. This is the kind of thing I have been told in both fashion schools I have attended: ‘One of the pockets went on a trip to another place on the jacket, and everybody wondered what it was doing there?’ or ‘Half a leg of velour, half a leg of suiting fabric isn’t telling us what you want to say’. Well no, because it can’t speak. 

Is there a defining line between you the individual/ designer/creative and the audience/market/output.Supposedly I am the person that creates the possibility for others to find something in what I do. That is what I am educated to do; I work for fictive humans, about fictive humans with fictive humans. You may say my audience could be interpreted as everyone that enjoys what I have done so far, and I’m grateful for that. I also work for me, trying to not think about the others, just for one human. You as yourself is complex enough. In fact, biologically speaking, there is enough mystery and unsolved problems in one human being.

Is there an emotional, physical, mental backdrop to your work, what gets you motivated work wise?I get motivated by a fair few different things, but I often feel the motivation comes in waves, or in between hits of other emotions. Just like everyone else, I get motivated when I have something to work towards or just in those few strikes of ‘joy’ through working. 

Tell me about the current collection/project you are working on; what is your current source of inspiration?For my current collection I looked into the view on normality, how ‘we’ in society embrace it i.e. the simplicity of real absurdity and the fear of normality, as well as the ironic result it leads to. I took, as a starting point, the idea of the typical existence of the life of a ‘businessman’. Taking a reactive stance on the fear of normality and mediocrity, the fear of ‘not become someone’. I took inspiration from the mood of, and the ideas around, ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett and the Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms.Looking at everyday routine- the walk to and from the office, and looking at the ‘realistic absurdity’ you face on a daily basis. For many it can be what they see as normal, but re-looking at the same situation, from another point of view, it can become an ironic and absurd scene, such as waiting to buy or waiting to drink a coffee, waiting for the elevator.  The illusion of waiting recreates the uncertainty in our acts. This is where I lust for a silence in the garment, as well as the idea that we could let the garment make some sort of decision for us. Saying it communicates who we are and how we feel. 

Who or what are your influences, heroes, idols, muses, irritants?Several artist/musicians/writers that have inspired me for a longer time and over and over again: Philip Glass, Arvo Part, John Baldessari, Thomas Houseago, Samuel Beckett, Daniil Kharms, Christian Khrog, Svein Strand, just to name a few.Also, of course, you sometimes get more motivation from negative subjects but this never lasts long and is not really the same as ‘inspiration’. I’m surprised that nothing more has happened around H&M; I guess they are buying students’ hope, appealing to their aspiration to win lots of money. People are in the streets of Paris shouting about climate change wearing H&M from head to toe. This is paradoxical and ironic. I suppose it is the less charming actions of the heads of H&M that irritates me the most. I really hope people stop applying for their competition. 

If money wasn't an issue what would you do/produce/create or not do?Go to the moon, or at least in space. That is something I would very much like to do. Perhaps make much more sculptures.

If you were to study a subject which is related to your practice but could inform your work what would it be?To become a conductor, if I had the talent to become a composer. This is a little dream of mine… or at least to work with a composer.

If you could do something else what would it be? Sculptor, composer, doctor, physicist or astronaut.  A fair few other things.

All clothes by Peter Schamaun

Photography by @davidpooleprojects

Styling by @philipclarkestylist

Model: Elie at Rebel Model management - Brussels

[slashstroke]

THIS WAY - Elie PT 2 

All clothes by Rory Parnell Mooney

Photography by @davidpooleprojects

Styling by @philipclarkestylist

Model: Elie at Rebel Model management - Brussels

[slashstroke]

IMAGE FROM “ST MICHAEL’ CLICK THROUGH FOR FULL FEATURE

[slashstroke]

‘ST MICHAEL’ -  Elie part 1.

Wear it how it fits. 

All clothes from Marks and Spencer Women apart from mesh tops, high waisted leggings and jock strap, all from Aurora Dancewear and Costume. 

Photography by @davidpooleprojects

Styling by @philipclarkestylist

Model: Elie at Rebel Model management - Brussels

[slashstroke]

Image by Sasha Chaika for /-

>>>

[slashstroke]

I’M GONNA BE...

“TONY”

Photography by Sasha Chaika @chaikadiary

Model: Tony at Tann models, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

[slashstroke]

CLICK IMAGE FOR LATEST FEATURE

[slashstroke]

Slashstroke’s pick from Royal College of Art Textile and fashion graduates 2015. New thinking- new textiles - new fashion- Androgynous, sexy, mixed up, out of scale, delicate and clunky, all options to play with it , do with it as you please! Check it out the BOY story HERE

Photography by David Poole

Styling by Lucy Fine and Philip Clarke

Model: Miriam @M and P models.

Designers: Tugkan Dokmen, Ka Wa Key, Carly Mikkelsen, Olivia Kennedy, Alex Pengelly, Jessica Leclere, Rebecca Stant

[slashstroke]

Slashstroke’s pick from Royal College of Art Textile and fashion graduates 2015. New thinking- new textiles - new fashion- Androgynous, sexy, mixed up, out of scale, delicate and clunky, all options to play with it , do with it as you please! Check it out the GIRL story HERE

Photography by David Poole

Styling by Lucy Fine and Philip Clarke

Model: Amara @premiere models

Designers: Tugkan Dokmen, Ka Wa Key, Carly Mikkelsen, Olivia Kennedy, Alex Pengelly, Jessica Leclere, Rebecca Stant 

[slashstroke]

PARIS PASSING / BY CHANTAL ADAMS for /-

Check out the full “PARIS PASSING” homage by 3rd year Fashion Communication students at Middlesex University.

[slashstroke]

[slashstroke]

We asked the Final year Fashion Communication and Styling students at Middlesex University to document their recent trip to Paris. An homage of sorts, but looking in all the wrong places.  

Images by FCSMDX

[slashstroke]

ART OVER THERE

“It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.” – Neil Armstrong 

Art over there is a project curated by REBECCA BELL for Slashstroke.

When Alice begins to think of going through the Looking Glass into the world beyond, one of the main things that attracts her is the sight of the open drawing room door leading into the passage. She is intrigued by the fact that, as far as she can see it looks just the same as the one in her world, but that is only as far as she can see in the reflection. What of the places beyond, unseen at the end of the corridor? Alice is playing with perspective, that great multifarious concept which Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale called “necessary” for “otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bed sheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, crisscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere.”

“Over There” is a form of perspective meaning many things, especially in art. Art explores geography, psychology, history, the physical and metaphysical: from here to there and back again, not to mention the vast territory of formal values in between. It’s too large to locate in one place and so this series of images and articles aims to explore what it can mean. But how to begin? To return to Lewis Carroll, we could ‘Begin at the beginning,’ [as] the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’ But there is no end to this exploration, so let us begin at the beginning and keep going.

If you are interested in submitting content please email info@slashstrokemagazine.com adressed to Rebecca. 

[slashstroke]

1.Please describe your creative process.

Currently studying Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art,  Sasha Cresdee documents herself through lo-fi self portraiture, still life assemblages and collage that remove and examine her physical form, and explore “voids, textures, print, colour, the self and how these elements occupy space within the photographic image”. Personal yet generic ephemera that evidence the passage of adolescence to adulthood. These hallmarks of Tumblr’s selfie generation form the environment of artist Sasha Cresdee’s work.

WE ASKED SASHA CRESDEE  TO ANSWER A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT HER WORK IN PURELY VISUAL TERMS.

2. You publish much of your work on Tumblr, and your self portrait is a recurring symbol. How do you visualize the landscape of the world wide web?

3.Your work contains a ‘selfie’ element, often using the negative space of your body, or showing it dissected and re-arranged. Describe the way you see yourself a) IRL and b) Online.

4.The frequently scrappy, mixed media nature of your collages conveys the re-cycled, re-blogged, re-edited, re-grammed feel of social media’s abstract and designed visual language. What is your relationship with social media?

5. If you could look like anyone or anything else who or what would you look like and how would that look?

6.You have used knitting and embroidery alongside the digital in your work. What interests you about combining these different media in art?

Click here for more Sasha Cresdee

[slashstroke]

WE ARE WHAT WE DO … BECAUSE OF YOU.

SLASHTROKE IS PRODUCED ON A COLLABORATIVE BASIS BRINGING TOGETHER IDEAS AND OUTPUT FROM AROUND THE WORLD. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED, PITCHING AN IDEA, SUBMITTING WORK OR CREATING A PROJECT WITH US, GET IN TOUCH

THIS PAGE FEATURES SOME OF OUR MOST FREQUENT COLLABORATORS 

[slashstroke]

Writer and artist Frankie Kane has contributed to every issue of /- mag, usually having the task of writing the introductory essay in each issue which establishes the general topic for discussion. In /- issue 1 ‘whats good about new?‘ we had his first essay by the same title and an interview with the band Django Django. In /- issue 2 ‘The inside-out issue‘ Frankie’s essay ‘Labyrinth‘  sets out the riddle of inside-out and the struggle within and in  /- issue 3 ‘2nd skin‘ his article ‘Avant-garde‘ externalises the question. In /- issue 4 ‘Faux Zen‘ Frankie’s essay ‘Destination Zen‘ acknowledges the power of the pursuit which is illustrated further in his interview with artist and musician Billy Childish. In our latest issue 2D3D Frankie was offered a partial escape from words and showcased his new art work in ‘Prismatic extasis‘ (2d3d and beyond). 

[slashstroke]

Research in Progress in Response to Designblok 2013 Rebecca Bell

Zdenek Pešánek, Torsos 1937. Veletržní palác, Prague.

Historian Verena Wasmuth coined the phrase, “attempts at structuring transparent mass”.* Wasmuth was using it to describe the work of prophetic Czech artist Zdenek Pešánek who created kinetic light sculpture as well as light, colour and music projections from the 1920s-1960s. His work ranged from architectural collaborations to signage and smaller-scale sculpture, evocatively captured in films such as Svetlo Proniká Tmou from 1930

Pešánek’s work is truly incredible and has influenced a great deal of Czech art and design, in particular anticipating the glass of Czech artists in the 1950s to the 1970s. Wasmuth’s idea of “structuring transparent mass”, particularly in relation to the ongoing influence and questioning of artistic and design legacies in Czech practice, is a relevant starting point for this analysis of contemporary Czech glass.

Designblok, an annual festival of contemporary design, offers a rich insight into Czech and international practice. Situated in spaces ranging from a disused station, Nákladové nádraží Žižkov, a series of open studios in Kafkuv dum near the central Old Town Square, and the ‘Art House’ in the Baroque section of the Renaissance Colloredo-Mansfeldský Palace on Karlova Street; Designblok echoes the rich architectural and visual layering of Prague itself.

My fascination with twentieth-century Czech design meant I could not help but see the Designblok ’13 exhibits by Czech practitioners in connection to their predecessors, either implicitly or explicitly offering commentary on the cannon of Czech design. Amongst the multitude of displays at Designblok ‘13, so many objects were striking and thrilling, but to refine this article I am focusing on a medium which has a pivotal role in Czech design history, namely glass.

Lyricism, subtle narrative and a whimsical humour are elements that run through Czech design. Czech scientist and expert on glass-making, Dr B. Wolf, wrote in 1958 that “as a rule we conceive of glass as a composition of ‘light music’, as light makes the boundaries of shape and emphasises the plasticity of colour.” In turn this has an effect on our emotions, similar to the play of light and shade, which are substantiated through the medium of glass. He uses this as a reason for the fact that glass is rarely connected with epic subject matter, but is concerned with the lyrical or decorative. Subject matter and meaning are loaded areas for the Communist period in which Wolf was writing; this article does not have time to go further into what he intended or the official rhetoric to which he was bound, but suffice to say Czech glass has a history spanning centuries and as such has been commandeered by political movements. From embodying aspects of the national identity of the new Czechoslovak Republic, founded in 1918, to becoming propaganda under the Communist Regime in international exhibitions to demonstrate the alleged artistic success and high-quality production of the new Socialist society, glass has been made a platform for narratives whether intentional or not within Czech design history.

Jan Plechac and Henry Wielgus, Neverending Glory at Designblok ’13

Whilst the official theme of the festival was ‘Icons’ the objects shown in Designblok ’13 often seemed to address temporality, placing references to past, present and future over one another. One example of this was lighting design, in particular the chandelier, that triumphant and traditional celebration of light and glass denoting wealth and splendour. This form was explored by designers Jan Plechac and Henry Wielgus in their Neverending Glory collection, translating historic chandeliers from five of the world’s eminent concert halls into contemporary design. Their aim is to transplant the chandeliers to your living room via their outline, their silhouette, evoking the memory of a particular chandelier from La Scala in Milan to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to Prague’s Estates Theatre. They are immensely pleasing forms, hanging clear and bright. They played an intriguing role in the festival, where they became a consolidation of chandeliers echoed and repeated in different forms across the city. Most poignant were the shadows of older Czech chandeliers, such as one in the crumbling Baroque hall of Colloredo-Mansfeldský Palace. Its silhouette hung on the wall above an installation by French industrial designer Matali Crasset entitled Voyage to Uchronia, which explores a utopian vision of design beyond time and space, with furniture for imaginary people. Solitary objects filled the space, cocoons that can surround the invisible sitting or sleeping body. Future and past came together in a multiplicity of form and its possibilities, both for the Baroque and contemporary maker.

Baroque hall of Colloredo-Mansfeldský Palace, Prague, with Matali Crasset Voyage to Uchronia, Designblok ’13

To continue with light and the chandelier, Preciosa Lighting played a lead role in Designblok ’13. The Preciosa brand was first registered in Bohemia in 1915 (three years before the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic) then became a state-run organisation as part of the nationalisation of firms under the new Communist Government in 1948, until privatised in the 1990s. Preciosa therefore offers a story of connections between design history and key political transitions in twentieth-century Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, a narrative in which glass has often played the role of national protagonist, a symbol of historic Czech production. Throughout the festival one saw designers who work with Preciosa, including Jiri Pelcl, a leading figure in Czech design. Pelcl is an internationally-renowned designer of furniture, products, interiors and architecture design. In 1987 he founded Atika, a design group that reacted against state-led design in socialist Czechoslovakia.  Pelcl’s Garden collection, designed for Preciosa and shown at Designblok ’13, was a series of hanging balls composed of glass flowers, white spheres glowing against dark backdrops.

Jiri Pelcl Garden, designed for Preciosa, Designblok ’13

Within their showroom, Preciosa also demonstrated their allegiance to Czech design history by displaying an Expo 58 tribute collection. The latter was created in response to the World Fair Expo in Brussels in 1958, where Czech glass triumphed. The collection apparently strives to continue this legacy with “reverence”, viewing it as a time that shaped new ways of thinking and introduced technological improvements to glass design. To emphasise this aim, alongside the chandeliers were an assortment of glass pieces first displayed at Expo 58, including an incredible amorphous piece by the “Employees of Borské Glassworks” alongside a red vase by Miluše Roubícková (wife of similarly important hero of Czech glass, René Roubícek) manufactured by Borské glass in the famous Bohemian glass town of Nový Bor.

Glass vase designed by employees of Borské Glassworks, 1958

Red Vase by Miluše Roubícková, 1958.

An example of a glass work by René Roubícek, Sklenená plastika c. 1964. Made in Nový Bor. Collection of Glass Museum Nový Bor.

DECHEM at Designblok ’13

Nový Bor is a town historically-known for its glass production, alongside places like Železný Brod and Jablonec nad Nisou in North Bohemia (a region in the North of the Czech Republic). These glass towns, celebrated in a myriad of texts, films and articles on the subject, could not help but enter my mind on viewing the work by DECHEM Studio exhibited at Designblok ’13. DECHEM created collections of clear, black and pastel-coloured glass forms, made by Czech company Moser in the traditional Moser glass colours, gathered to suggest shimmering abstracted towns, recalling a Czech propensity towards the miniature glass form. The two designers behind the work, Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Jandourek, aim to “tell stories in Bohemian glass”. They appear to continue a story told by Czech glass makers such as Jaroslav Brychta who created worlds of glass ‘figurky’ (or figurines) from the 1920s onwards, also contributing to the infamous Expo 58 display with works such as Glass Universe containing astrological and mythological figures. Whilst bold in shape and cleaner in line, DECHEM seem to nod to this history, taking a whimsical joy in glass and pushing its boundaries to explore both the abstract and figurative potential of the form to assemble imaginary places.

Jan Cerný, Ladislav Ouhrabka and Jaroslav Brychta, Universe, 1958. Left: detail.

Image from Czechoslovak Glass Review 1958, Issue 8

Capsula by Lucie Koldova for Brokis, Designblok ’13

Like a deconstructed chandelier, Capsula by Lucie Koldova for Brokis was another celebration of Czech glass heritage. Brokis works with designers like Koldova to produce glass lighting fixtures (often accompanied by other natural materials such as wood), producing pieces by hand in the Czech Republic using traditional craft techniques in combination with contemporary technology. The carefully placed pieces in Capsula was reminiscent of another area of prowess in the history of Czech glass: innovative and elegant exhibition design. The same goes for the striking display of Studio Olgoj Chorchoj’s Fireborncollection of lights made in collaboration with Brokis glassworks and the Stará Hut foundry. Founded in 1990 by Michal Fronek and Jan Nemecek, Olgoj Chorchoj collaborates with many key Czech manufacturers to create an exciting range of work including furniture, lighting and glass.

Studio Olgoj Chorchoj’s Fireborn with Brokis and the Stará Hut foundry, Designblok ’13

Exhibition design was pivotal to the success of the Expo 58 Czechoslovakian Pavillion. Indeed, the story goes that following Expo 58 Czechoslovak organisers were called upon with only a few months’ notice to create a glass exhibition in Moscow in 1959 to distract Soviet audiences from an American exhibition showing the��American Way of Life, a piece of Cold War propaganda demonstrating the bountiful consumer goods of an average American family. Czechoslovakia responded with a multimedia exhibition using film, projections, lights and glass installations of a magnitude that effectively assisted the government in distracting home audiences from their comparative lack of material possessions and facilities. (Watch original film footage of the Moscow exhibition).

Czech exhibition design continues as a strength, Londoners might most recently have witnessed an example of its current form in the ICA’s Points of Departure exhibition curated by Rebecca Heald. A culmination of a year of collaboration with Delfina Foundation, ICA, ArtSchool Palestine and the British Council, the exhibition was also supported by the Czech Centre due to its design by Czech exhibition designer Jan Pfeiffer. It seemed to demonstrate the Czech exhibition design tradition of strong direction and clarity of form.

René Roubícek Tree of the Czechoslovak Glass Industry, the Czechoslovak Glass Exhibition, 1959 Moscow

In the 1959 Moscow exhibition, examples of domestic glass objects were displayed to incredible effect in René Roubícek’s Tree of the Czechoslovak Glass Industry. The latter was an innovative display of traditional glass objects thrown out of context through their proximity to non-domestic forms made of contrasting materials. I could not help but see a parallel in the Designblok ’13 work of a student of UMPRUM (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague), Tadeáš Podracký, whose JAARScollection was created in collaboration with Moser glassworks. Though with different conceptual aims toTree of the Czechoslovak Glass Industry in its state-sponsored trade fair context, JAARS also enables an entirely new formal encounter. Engraved glass vases are bound to wooden sledges with leather straps; a meeting point between Joseph Beuys and traditional Czech glass forms. The latter is an intentional conceptual hybrid, continuing the interests of Podracký who aims to explore philosophical and formal reinterpretations of the history of art and design, looked at technology in relation to natural systems and processes. Again, the layering of different temporal symbols was addressed in continuation of a core approach in the designers of Designblok ’13.

Tadeáš Podracký, JAARS created with Moser glassworks, Designblok ’13

Traditional technique is also something that Designblok ’13 reiterated. In contrast to Podracký and Moser’s collaborative pieces, this was central to the production of work designed for domestic use such as the work by Rony Plesl for BOMMA glassworks at Svetla nad Sazavou, where Plesl’s designs are implemented by local glass makers. They use new glass-moulding and shaping technologies to create bowls and plates entitled bubbles®, imitating the structure of bubble wrap.

Rony Plesl for BOMMA, bubbles®, Designblok ’13

Alongside Plesl, Jiri Pelcl and Olgoj Chorchoj also design glass collections for BOMMA. The latter two designers appear at the festival again amongst those represented by the Krehký Gallery. Led by the Directors of Designblok Jana Zielinski and Jirí Macek, the gallery was established on the basis of a successful exhibition that was part of Designblok ’07, in the form of an imaginary spherical landscape (designed by Maxim Velcovský).

Krehký aims support the development of unique experimental designers whilst utilising traditional Czech industry through collaboration with manufacturers. They go further than this and also cite beauty and emotion as requirements for contemporary design, elements they describe as “longed for” after several periods of “pure pragmatism”. The latter is taken from Zielinski and Macek’s Krehký catalogue entitled An Emotional Landscape of Contemporary Czech Design, published by Profil Media in 2008. The authors discuss the strong connection between design and politics in twentieth-century Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic, describing the progression from “national decorativism” in the new First Republic of 1918 to the modernist aims of the interwar period, then of course the famous Brussels style, concluding with the “anonymous socialist look” of the post-58 period in which designs were made in isolation from the latest global developments, with limited production facilities. The authors cite designer Marcel Wanders who asserts that despite the re-entry of Czech design on the world stage post-1989, the challenges of creating objects that could be made simply whilst still meeting the desires of the consumers for beautifully made items became “stylistic dogmas” that still impact manufacture and so impede full use of industrial potential. Krehký appears to take up this challenge and support craftsmanship and freedom of expression whilst collaborating with Czech manufacturers in exploring technological possibilities. This aim was felt throughout the work represented by Designblok ’13.

New Biedermeier installation by Krehký at Festival Krehký Mikulov, June 2013. Photography by Bara Prasilova/www.krehky.cz

Krehký does indeed present beautiful and incredible design. The meaning of their name, Fragile, offers an insight into the nature of their collection and displays. They simultaneously seem to capture the intangible beauty and strength of Czech design. And they continue the tradition of whimsical yet structured exhibition design, as seem in their original Designblok ‘07 show and Designblok ’13 ‘s Nový Biedermeier – a collection “in the service of home, festiveness, joy and exceptional moments” (Designblock ’13 catalogue).

There are so many more designers that could be discussed: Eva Eisler’s mixed media installation and curation; the toys of Fatra, a Czech plastics company established in 1935 and bound to another great tradition within Czech manufacturing – that of toys, puppets and animation; a furniture collaboration between deFORM Studio and DuPont Corian that revisits design from the 1930s to the 1960s; cremation urns designed by students from VŠUP; not to mention ceramics and textiles. Designblok ’13 was an exploration of temporal, spatial and political context, resulting in objects that ask the viewer to question what design can mean.

The Emotional Landscape of Czech Design by Krehký, Designblok 2007. Set designed by Maxim Velcovský. Photography by Dusan Tomanek / www.krehky.cz

As a PhD student in Design History at the Royal College of Art and V&A, I was funded by the Czech Centre London to visit the Designblok ‘13 festival in Prague. My area of research is design within Czechoslovakia under Communism, from the late 1940s to the late 1960s, a time in which multiple official design institutions were established to commission design for a new socialist era in the aftermath of the Second World War and Nazi occupation.

With enormous thanks to the Czech Centre for funding this research trip to Designblok ’13.

Rebecca Bell @rebeccamairbell http://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research/student-research/research-students/rebecca-bell/

*Reference to Verena Wasmuth is cited from “Czech Glass in the Limelight: The Great Exhibitions Abroad”, Helmut Ricke (ed) Czech Glass 1945-1980: Design in an Age of Adversity, (2005, Stuttgart), p.86

Relevant links in order of reference in the article:

http://www.designblok.cz/

http://www.ngprague.cz/

http://www.pelcl.cz/

www.glassmuseum.eu

http://www.dechemstudio.com/

http://www.luciekoldova.com/

www.brokis.cz/

http://www.olgojchorchoj.cz/

http://tadeaspodracky.com/

https://www.vsup.cz/en/

http://www.ronyplesl.com/

http://www.bomma.cz/

http://www.krehky.cz/

www.marcelwanders.com/

http://designeast.eu/2013/01/eva-eisler-czech-republic/

http://www.fatra.cz/en/

http://www.studiodeform.com/Classics-Corian