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Index: Una Visione Estesa

Deganello’s ‘Torso’ sofa.

Keith Johnson: ‘Most interesting of all is the effortless way in which this series of avant-garde seating objects apostatizes the tyranny of the rectangle that most sofa designs of the period capitulated to. The Torsos work to sublimate those tendencies towards a higher, more expressionistic reality.’

Kuramata’s ‘Miss Blanche’ chair.

Keith Johnson: ‘Kuramata turned the viewers’ expectations inside-out and upside-down, conjuring up objects and physical spaces that were radical and yet extremely functional. His ability to transform industrial materials (perforated stainless steel, chains, terrazzo, Lucite, glass) into shimmering objects of desire still provokes endless dialogue amongst critics and supporters alike.’

A silver fruit bowl by Ettore Sottsass.

Keith Johnson: [MEMPHIS] ’embodied all of the themes which Sottsass had been experimenting since the 1960’s-1979’s: bright colours, an adoration of cultural kitsch, motifs lifted from suburban life and particularly, cheap mass-market products such as plastic laminates commingled with over-refined materials like marble, rare-wood laminates, silver, gold-leafing, goofy-looking light bulbs, etc.’

Pistoletto’s wall lamp.

Keith Johnson: ‘“Tutti Designers” (“Everyone is a Designer”) is a conceptual wall lamp/neon sculpture with a stenciled metallic suitcase, complete with the obligatory Arte Povera exposed wires and raw metal wall-fasteners. Is the suitcase merely a container for the necessary neon transformer, or a briefcase full of ideas?’

A lamp by Franz West.

Keith Johnson: The “Privat Lampe des Künstlers II” floor lamp is an attempt to allow the opportunity to decorate a private residence with a rather strange yet wonderful Franz West metal object. This lamp, fabricated of unwieldly-looking iron chain, is absolutely austere in its appearance. Its sole embellishment: a disquieting raw light bulb.

A dormeuse by Joseph Kosuth.

Keith Johnson: As is often the case in great works of art, “Modus Operandi” dormeuse reveals an unplanned yet “controlled” accident – a side-view of the head-rest shows that in the course of pulling the fabric into a French-twist bolster, the woven Freudian words appear to be spinning “uncontrollably” inwards towards the center – a veritable “vortex of the mind” of whomever might be laying there.

A wooden desk and bench by Lawrence Weiner.

Keith Johnson: Lawrence Weiner, a central figure in the formation of 1960’s Conceptual art, is renowned for creating site-specific artwork that encompasses the usage of typographic texts. In this case, a rather normal-looking, Shaker-like desk and bench have been modified with copper-inlaid words and decorations in order to imply a greater sense of gravitas than a desk would normally offer by itself.

A copper waste basket by Lawrence Weiner.

Keith Johnson: In this metaphoric object by the American conceptual word artist Lawrence Weiner, the act of creation cannot be performed except by artists who realize creation often starts with failure.