Objection dissects the expansive definitions of art and design. Through unconventional vocabulary and transdisciplinary working methods, the selected artists both embrace and at the same time protest functionalism. Through the application of materials, methodology, education, politics, and identity, each artist tells an individual story of how ideas relate to national history; how personal narratives respond to contemporary culture and conditions of production and consumption.

Featuring a cross-generational selection of historically significant artists such as Ettore Sottsass, Byung Hoon Choi, Franz West, and Qin Feng, with new innovators such as nendo, Christopher Schanck, and Pryce Lee, the exhibition shakes the balance of what it means to be the creator of ideas and objects.

Objection examines the deviations between logical contemporary forms and the role of function in art and objects. In so doing, it argues the idea that art is a genuine creative labor that cannot be resolved ontologically or epistemologically. It argues the ‘principles’ approach to design, promoted by the De Stijl movement, and underpinned the Bauhaus movement, is a form of purism that is limited to functionality and esthetics. Do both not constitute an encounter with the problematic? It is all the property of the living, of intelligence coupled to action, that not only enacts poiesis, but indicates a broader role for creative anomaly.

Byung Hoon Choi for instance is considered to be the father of contemporary Korean design. Prominently featured in the exhibition are a series of his works (also included in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Art Museum) that use raw stone and marble to find taoist notions of balance between raw and refined, sculptural and functional.

This material and mental juxtaposition can also be discovered through the work of artists such as Julian Watts and Bec Brittian. Watts defies utility and decoration through his curvaceous hardwood, quasi-functional sculptures that mimic domestic objects. Using his knowledge of raw wood carving techniques, he often pushes the pieces to the point of surreal. Known for binding smart design and technical lighting with balance and luxurious practicality, Brittian’s sculptural lamps are composed of brass, bronze, concrete and leather.

Additionally lighting the way is Franz West’s famous “Privat Lampe des Kunstlers”. Like many of his works fabricated from uniquely ordinary materials, the work is made from a welded raw metal chain and fits a singular lightbulb atop. Responding to the Actionist and Performance Art movements of the ‘60s, the Austrian sculptor Franz West created delightfully light-hearted mixed media objects and large scale installations merging ideas of form and function. Provocative, compelling and disturbing, his work can be found in the permanent collections of most renowned major museums.

West’s irreverence and subversion can also be found in the works of artists such as Chris Wolston, Christopher Schanck, and Pryce Lee. Wolston’s terra-cotta chair, impressed with fingerprints, combines traditional technique with playful fabrication. Influenced by his work and life in Columbia, these imperfections have led the New York Times to define him as one of the young talents who are redefining the perception of ugly. Chris Schanck’s laborious works are often crafted using humble materials such as steel, industrial foam, and aluminum-foil. With few straight lines or perfect angles, Schanck distorts the large-scale mirror on exhibition as a peculiar 3 dimensional work. Producing large commissions for Tom Ford, Christian Dior and Peter Marino, Schanck remains grounded in the Detroit community where he lives and works. Pryce Lee, a young and talented British artist and architect (by happenstance), explores his irreverence through personal experience, social commentary, and real events. Best known for his works with mirrored glass, plexi, brass, and bullets, Lee works in a variety of techniques and media. The featured works come from his series “Come Fly With Me”, and explore the randomness and fragility of life.

Looking further to artists or objects imbued with symbolism, emotionality, global and historical references we can cite the work of luminaries such as Ettore Sottsass and Chinese artist Qin Feng. Ettore Sottsass, a seminal figure in 20th-century design, created a vast body of work over a period of more than six decades. Associated with Memphis – the design collective he spearheaded in the 1980, he created the work “Ashoka Lamp”. The lamp is named for an ancient Indian emperor. Featured in the exhibition, it is an emblem of his interest in ancient legend and ritual.

While Sottsass’s work looked to eastern cultures for examples of how to create spiritual connection between form and meaning, Qin Feng’s art blends Eastern and Western qualities. Qin Feng is a leader of contemporary ink painting and a forerunning representative of the Chinese avant-garde art movement. His paintings experiment with traditional Chinese ink painting and Western abstract expressionist styles, maintaining a link with the traditional while toying with the imported. By transposing the language of western paintings to the medium and language of Asian art, he remakes the medium of ink with contemporary aesthetics and functionality. His interest in balancing the dynamic between positive and negative space, within his compositions, mirrors his interest in exploring the delicate harmony between humans and nature.

Huy Bui explores the relationship between humans, nature and design through architecture and ecology. His “Geological Frame” pieces are small, sculptural terrariums and miniature stand-ins for his life-size utopian “Plant City” structures. The objects are mobile in the way that they can be arranged or stacked to form other modular objects.

Modular, sculptural, functional, experimental, and optical are only a few words to describe the practice of design firm nendo. nendo, founded in Tokyo by Oki Sato, is focused on a multidisciplinary practice. Works can be found in dozens of permanent collections including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Museum of Art and Design in New York. The “Scatter Shelf” on display is composed black acrylic shelves in a grid form, stacked in three layers and slightly displaced. Structurally sound, it’s diffused reflections cause a kaleidoscopic effect.

October 19 – December 16
Opening reception: October 19, 6-8pm
@ Crossing Collective 559 W. 23rd Street. New York, NY 10011