Some of the bone vases comprising Tidal Ossuary, an exhibit commissioned by Gallery Libby Sellers
Lohmann's Flock (2004), a series of lights made from sheeps' stomachs.
this is product placement
Archive for January, 2010
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Julia Lohmann’s interest in design began during childhood walks with her father, during which they’d collect abandoned objects to create small figurines and creatures. In the past, her interest in the natural world centered on our relationship to animals as sources of food and materials (consider Flock, a series of translucent lights made of sheep’s stomachs, and Cow Bench, a boar-shaped leather bench she dubbed “a bovine momento mori”). Tidal Ossuary, which debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach and will be shown Feb. 5 – March 4 at the Jacqueline Rabun Gallery in London, continues the theme of elegant objects of beastly origins. For the exhibit—commissioned and financed by Gallery Libby Sellers—Lohmann and her partner, Gero Grundmann, created a series of vases from bones they discovered while walking along London’s river Thames. The relics’ location, when figured in with the water’s current, suggests that they were by-products from London’s Smithfield meat market, either thrown into the water or washed up from the city’s Victorian-era sewer system, which emptied into the river. Once deemed as rubbish, these remnants from meals long past have survived their supposed use-by-date and, now in Lohmann’s and Grundmann’s hands, return to objects of use and even greater worth.
Tidal Ossuary Vases by Julia Lohmann and Gero Grundmann
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Woolly Pockets by Miguel and Rodney Nelson
Woolly Pocket "Knoll" in brown
There’s good news for urban dwellers longing for a patch of green in their small space. Brothers Miguel and Rodney Nelson have created portable, flexible, breathable gardening containers dubbed Woolly Pockets. The pockets come in a number of sizes, ranging from the Wee Woolly, which can host a tabletop herb garden, up to the Knoll, which can hold a 15-gallon fruit tree, or Meadow, a 4’ square oasis of vegetation suitable for a small garden. For those who are especially space-challenged, Woolly Pockets offers Wallys, containers that can be hung on walls or other vertical surfaces for aerial gardening. Wallys come in one, three, or five-pocket modules, and can be used to create living walls of any size. Not just for home use, the Pockets have a number of potential applications, including bringing gardening to urban kids. Woolly Pockets has teamed up with School Nutrition Plus to install edible gardens in public schoolyards throughout Los Angeles and is working with the city to create community gardens in other parts of the city. If the product story wasn’t green enough, Woolly Pockets are handmade in the U.S.A. from recycled plastic bottles. And while the company offers the pockets on their site in neutral tones of black, brown, and cream, Miguel Nelson assures us that any color is possible (with a significant order), so if you want your Pocket to complement your posies, that is an option.
Massive living wall made up of multiple "Wally" units
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Product Placement 2.1: Tile - Feb. 10, 6-8 p.m. at Nemo Tile
Bioessence porcelain planks from Nemo Tile
Mark those calendars: Product Placement 2.1 will happen Feb. 10 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Nemo Tile Company, Inc., located at 48 East 21st Street in New York City. This installment—which we’re organizing in conjunction with Ceramic Tiles of Italy and Nemo—will focus on those fab porcelain and ceramic slabs, the designers who make them, and the processes and trends in the field. And if you’ve never thought about the artistic value of tile, prepare to be schooled.
The event will be free, with the presentation starting at 7 p.m.; networking and drinks will happen before and after. Beat the rush and RSVP, as this one is going to be especially crowded: thisisproductplacement@gmail.com.
Full details about the featured products soon!
Friday, January 8th, 2010
DIY Design by/from Lindsey Adelman
In an industry where designers typically struggle to protect their work against unauthorized or low-cost reproductions, Lindsey Adelman has taken a bold step. The talented artist/designer recently relaunched her web presence, and there, among the hand-blown glass and custom metal ceiling fixtures that sell from $3,600 to over $20,000 (depending upon the number of globes desired), is the “you make it” chandelier. Adelman provides detailed drawings, step-by-step instructions, and a materials list complete with recommended sources so that fans of her work can make their own Adelman-designed piece. At least two have done so successfully, and one estimates the cost of materials at $120, plus their labor. Comments in the shelter blog world have been unanimously positive in response to Adelman’s generous gift to the DIY community, but we’re curious as to how other designers and design retailers, especially those whose product offering is readily “knockoffable”, will react to this foray into open source product design. From the Product Placement perspective, it is an illuminating insight into Adelman’s approach to design, but we do wonder if it may lessen the perceived value of her custom work. In other words, this artful experiment may not serve her long-term business well.
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
The first domestic lamp to incorporate Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lighting technology, hitherto used to backlight flat-screen TVs, the Ribbon is a technological marvel wrapped up in an unassuming plastic package. boasts bulbs that can last for 15,000 hours—twice as long as CFLs and 15 times puny incandescents. The Ribbon’s light can be dimmed without flickering (a hazard of LEDs) and its color adjusted to any custom mixture of warm and cool. The lamp’s bendable, elbow-like arm also means its can do triple duty as a task, ambient, and night light. And all for about half the price of a comparable LED model.
Ribbon Light by Eric Chan for TBT
A bevy of Ribbon lights.