24/06/2011

Hello, Paul Barbera!

Hello, Paul Barbera!

With all the warmth and feeling of his photographs, we welcome photographer Paul Barbera into the 2DM family. The Australian (and recent New Yorker) with Italian roots has crisscrossed the planet on a career that, beginning behind the viewfinder of a bulletproof old Minolta, has gone on to take him to exhibitions around the world and work with an impressive client list. He’s also quite the accomplished portraitist.

Paul has also forged several impressive collaborations. He uses the web extensively to collect and curate, and is behind the sweeping and evocative internet projects “Love Lost” and “Where They Create” (and we learned in this interview that he’s also behind “Where We Collaborate” and “Stuff People Send Me”). It the effervescence of Paul’s work’s and warm energy, though, that best communicates his strength as an artist. And we’ve known few photographers who can better inject positive emotion into a place. We’re thrilled he’s joined us.

Describe your relationship with photography. What was your first camera?
My first memory is of a Polaroid camera at 8 or 9 years old. But it wasn’t until I was 15 or 16 that I tried to control what I was trying to put into the frame. I used a Minolta SRT 101. It was the first time I found something that made sense to me, because I struggled with school. The Minolta was actually my father’s camera and I am certain that I wouldn’t have a relationship with photography if it wasn’t for him. He was born in Sulmona and came to Australia at 24. He worked as a motorbike mechanic but in his little spare time he not only practiced photography but also painted, did woodwork and made metal sculptures. These were technical, creative and practical skills which my brother, who is a furniture designer, and I inherited. We were given the opportunity and chance my father never had, so the foundation of my craft is somewhat of a legacy that was seeded by my father and my relationship with photography is bigger than me.

And what are your weapons of choice these days?
When I was younger, I worked in a camera shop and spent all of my wages on new cameras and equipment. I don’t do that anymore. In fact, the camera is not the centre of my work – my kit is very minimal – but rather, it is part of a process that I have been refining over the years so that everything I deliver is consistent in quality.

You are primarily an interiors photographer, but you also do fantastic portraits. How did you arrive there instead of becoming, say, a fashion or landscape photographer?
I think interiors found me. I spent many years exploring different genres and I have a website of this work. However, interiors always seemed to follow me around and it always felt effortless and easy so I never took it seriously at first. My good friend Edson Williams (who was also my agent for ten years) always told me to focus on interiors but it wasn’t until three years ago that I felt I was comfortable doing this and everything has fallen into place ever since. Before, I was doing some great projects and traveling a lot but now there is a new calmness and focus in my life and work.

How are you able to infuse such energy into your interiors and still-lives? We’ve remarked that you have a rather warm sensitivity towards objects and spaces…
I have learnt to trust my instincts after 20 years of shooting and that allows me to work naturally and openly because I’m actually a very energetic person and I’m constantly seeking new experiences, people and spaces. I get bored easily!

Tell us a little bit about your side projects “Love Lost” and “Where They Create.” There’s a monograph in the future for at least one of them, right?
Both are personal projects that are very close to my heart which I have self-published online. I tend not to talk about Love Lost in terms of what it is about. But I do envisage it evolving in a new direction in which I use actors and singers to create intimate portraits which can be published as a book one day. Where They Create comes from a very natural place because it comes from my travels and my interactions with a city and the creatives that I meet. About a year ago, I went to Frame magazine to shoot them as part of the blog and they ended up offering to publish it. It’s now coming out to bookstores in July.

What’s it like to be a cosmopolitan Australian? Is there a certain mark your home culture has etched onto your creative spirit?
Nice question! I think Australia as a ‘new world’ country sometimes lacks a sense of heritage but there is also freedom in that. For me it was important to live abroad to understand what this heritage meant to me, so one of the first places I moved to was Italy. I’ve also lived in Berlin and Singapore and for the last 10 years I’ve been working between Amsterdam and Melbourne. I think most of my Australian friends have lived and worked abroad because you feel a bit disconnected from the cultural capitals of the world because of our geographic location and when you return home, you seek to bring the best of what you experienced back home. I think Melbourne is the cosmopolitan capital of Australia. It’s got some amazing restaurants and there is room for innovation.

You’ve done a lot of work around Milan’s design scene – you’ve photographed Rossana Orlandi, Rosselini Missoni, Tom Dixon, Ross Lovegrove and others here. How do you feel about the city?
I love Milan, I really enjoy it when I visit. Compared to Rome, Milan is less chaotic. However it is also weighted down by its past – you see it in the advertising, film and culture. There is good side and negative side to this. I feel in the years to come, Italy will have a big shake up, as the next generation fight for more opportunities and possibilities. Italians are capable of greatness because there is a such a strong history of innovation and exploration. That’s why the great designers you mention descend towards Milan.

Sources of inspiration? Favourite photographers (besides yourself)?
As far as inspirations go, it changes I tend to look outside of photography. But I love the work of Martin Parr and Richard Kern an Australian called TIM RICHARDSON, there is too many to mention, i keep everything i want to share and remember on a site called Stuff People Send Me.

And why the big move to New York? Where in the city will you be living?I just arrived yesterday but it’s taken 6 months of planning to make it happen. I wanted to move here for many years for professional and lifestyle reasons and we’ve found a cute place to live in the East Village.

What do you do when not behind the lens?
I am behind my computer! I’m always planning and editing, there’s so much to do behind the scenes. But outside of work, socializing, family, watching documentaries, listening to podcasts on science and culture, cooking, enjoying coffee and spending time with my partner fill what gaps are left. I have to say in many ways my life is my work and vice versa.

Tag Christof – Very special thanks to Paul Barbera

 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
22/06/2011

Guest Interview n°28: Rosaria Rattin / Kose

.

Guest Interview n°28: Rosaria Rattin / Kose

Rosaria Rattin is an intensely sentient being. Truly straddling the line between designer and artist, she charges her objects for Kose with deeply social, political and human questions. Their provocation, however, is brilliantly hidden behind their minimal forms and delicious tactility. Along with her partner Graziano Azzolini, she has built the entirely artisanal brand from the ground up based on a belief that the value of handcraft is an indispensable tool for humanity going forward. She began her design career at Max Mara in an era where fashion was an entirely different animal, and her work for Kose continues to be informed heavily by her roots in style.

Rosaria is proudly Italian and hopeful for her country’s future. She is a visionary, and like every great designer, is possessed of an intense curiosity and humanity: strong, single-minded, critical, intelligent, and a voracious connoisseur of knowledge.

The Blogazine had the pleasure of spending two afternoons in Kose’s Milan studio, where we talked everything from form-giving and the importance of materials in design to Italy’s future, humanity’s past and the power of childhood…

Kose pieces are entirely handmade, unique objects made using “ancient handicraft techniques.” Share with us a bit the story and idea behind the company.
I’ve always considered the “human animal” a marvellous wonder of Nature. A mammal that evolved being able to transmit a thought, a feeling, emotions through words and through doing. And throughout their history, humans invented and passed down through memory their discoveries, their personal thoughts, their personal experiences… the very essence of the experience of life. This all in a constant labour to continually evolve, for posterity’s sake… small beings for a big Being.

I wanted for this reason to recapture ancient memories of “artisanal technique.” Those that came about in the 3rd millennium and were such an integral part of human life .. The artisanal is considered old-fashioned in a society that tends to simplify an few groups and homogenise everything in the name of industrialisation and mass consumerism. A rebirth of the artisanal is, in my opinion, a recuperation of memory and history. The recovery of uniqueness of the individual, of thought, of emotion and of sentiments.

Every Kose object transmits a part of the person who designed it, worked-over and even loved it… because clay (earth), you must handle it with care. You must touch it with sensitive hands and care. Otherwise, it breaks.

Since handcraft is inherently “anti-design” because of its opposition to mass-production, what is Kose’s design process like?
I wanted to demonstrate that the “antique,” if brought up to date is modernity itself. Design. Because man’s evolution has been to constantly “modernise,” humans through their constant pushing forward make projects in the present that… well, they become the future!

Their pared down simplicity recalls Japanese and Scandinaian aesthetic – but also perhaps Lino Sabbatini’s metal work. What are the inspirations for their forms?
The simplicity of the objects in the Kose canon represent for me a love for the elemental. The nature of objects. The flow of thought without , and beauty that is always extremely natural.

The process that goes into creating objects for Kose is a storytelling of emotions. And Kose objects are principally cities. The Note line is New York, and the Geometrie line is Berlin… Their “peripheries” (in both a physical and contextual sense) represent an end to the industrial age…

And the materials used? Glass, wood… even gauze. Why these in particular?
We use earthen clay, wood, glass, gauze for texture… quite simply because they’re natural. Natural compliments people. Natural for the people.

What do you think the future holds for handmade?
I think that handmade is the future. For decorative products it is a gift of uniqueness to another uniqueness.
I also believe that for a more “correct” trajectory of our species – and I consider global to include both the world and the entire universe – we must re-appropriate, take back for ourselves “doing,” “making” in order to reacquaint ourselves with… ourselves! To recognise ourselves. And to truly create.

Tag Christof – Very special thanks to Rosaria Rattin & Graziano Azzolini

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
17/06/2011

Jean Prouvé / G Star Raw + Vitra

Jean Prouvé / G Star Raw + Vitra

Modernism is here to stay. Dieter Rams’ design has never been more esteemed or influential, and planners and strategists are looking towards the utopian spirit of modernism to model our connected, collaborative future. And the continued influence of quintessential modernist Jean Prouvé is refreshing reassurance of just that, especially in our post postmodern, fragmented world where design headlines are grabbed by the likes of Gaetano Pesce’s writhing, tenuous pieces and Zaha Hadid’s amorphous, computer-generated forms.


In this spirit, always forward fashion house G Star Raw is teaming up with Vitra to re-imagine several iconic pieces from the designer’s archive for the new Prouvé RAW line.

G Star Raw itself has been on a rationalist, intellectual streak as of late, having used chess wunderkind Magnus Carlsen in a recent campaign to drive the point home. The Prouvé RAW line is a is an excellent extension of the message, and much like their denim continue the designer’s propensity to use pure, raw materials. The re-imagined Prouvé pieces mostly maintain their original forms, but are made ever-so-slightly more contemporary through colour palate variations, different textures, details and are every bit as gorgeous and precious as their first-run siblings. Even Catherine Prouvé has given them her endorsement.


The pieces are on public show from this week until July 31 at the Vitra compound in Weil am Rhein, and will be available in very limited edition beginning October/November in select Vitra showrooms around the world.

Tag Christof 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
14/06/2011

Fendi / Fatto a Mano For the Future

Fendi / Fatto a Mano For the Future

Handmade is true luxury. From the simplest trinket to the most intricate work of handblown glass or hand-stitched leather, the rarity and exclusivity of a unique (and sometimes even imperfect) object put together piece by piece by human hands cannot be exceeded. And no matter how far the quality of factory-produced objects may come, there is magic in the details of an object so inextricably linked to its creator.


As big fans of the artisanal and supporters of initiatives that encourage the using of hands, we’re happy to announce that Fendi is bringing its Fatto A Mano For The Future handmade design initiative to Florence in collaboration with IED Firenze. Slated to open tomorrow during the week of Pitti at the brand’s boutique on Via Degli Strozzi, the exhibition will feature several very limited-edition works by working designers.

For the event, designer T. Robert Nachtigall will be working together with a Fendi craftsman to create a series of leather-bound lamps and chandeliers with the highest-quality materials. And lest you imagine that handmade automatically equals low-tech, Nachtigall is informing his designs with an expertise in high-tech textiles, interaction design and robotics to create fantastical artisanal hybrids that actively add to their environments.

Artisanal sci-fi sounds like a lovely future.

Open from 10am to 7pm, June 15th and 16th at Fendi, Via degli Strozzi 21-r in Florence. #famftf on Twitter.

Tag Christof – Images courtesy Giuseppe Palaia – Special thanks to Annaluisa Franco & T. Robert Nachtigall 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
07/06/2011

The Book Affair / Automatic Books

.

The Book Affair / Automatic Books

Last Thursday and Friday Metricubi played host to The Book Affair. Tucked into a cozy corner of Campo San Polo under ruby red Elena Xausa-designed banners, the event curated by Automatic Books brought together an excellent cross-section of independent publishers working across Europe today.


And although the polizia showed up at one point (down, rowdy book nerds!), the event was a smashing success. There were a series of readings by the various publishing houses, and the entire event was set up to encourage conversation. Much like picking fresh fruit from an orchard, talking to the people who make the books you’re about to read is a revelation not to be missed.

Highlights included the intriguing works by France’s Incertain Sens (including one of its entirely handwritten notebook volumes), a large selection of works from Britain’s Bookworks, the Recession boxed set by Studio Blanco, and some seriously deep literature pondering existence, banality, politics, everything… We were happy to see a printed version of San Rocco, having admired their website and the concept behind their zine for quite some time, and were exposed to a host of stellar works from foreign publishes we hadn’t known before. And we were happy to see works in the flesh by 0_100, Secret Furry Hole, Kaleidescope Press, The Milan Review, and Wonder Room alumni Studio Temp.

As top-down publishing increasingly gives way to electronic, hybrid and user-generated formats, the creativity these independent houses bring to books is a promising look towards the future. While run-of-the-mill, straightforward books might one day cease to be printed on paper, the book itself has exciting new life ahead of it: originality, distinction, rarity. Not only are these publishers not abandoning the printed, physical book, they are carrying it forward in its most fertile conceptual space – they are creating new, original paradigms and designs for end users who will continue to appreciate books as treasures.

The Book Affair’s first outing was a fantastic start, and we hope it flourishes with time. Until the next outing!

Tag Christof

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
30/05/2011

The Editorial: Type Is Personality / Matthew Carter

.

The Editorial: Type Is Personality / Matthew Carter

Humans have a strange relationship with type. We stare at it literally all day, yet it generally goes completely unnoticed – letters are letters are letters. Except that they aren’t. Subtle differences in their form means big differences in how we feel about what we read. About whether a text shouts or whispers. Some type is so functional it becomes invisible (Helvetica). Others luxurious. Some vulgar, maybe old-fashioned. We associate places, things, eras with type. Type is sacred. It would be nothing less than cruel to carve out a tombstone in Comic Sans.

Big Caslon and Georgia, designed by Matthew Carter.

And while we may not notice type much in day-to-day life, the subtle, calculated changes designers make to centuries-old letter archetypes speak to our deepest sensibilities. In the most human of senses, type is personality. Think of the highly stylised “R” in Prada, the formal rigour of Mercedes Benz‘s Kurt Wiedermann-designed “Corporate A,” the iconic script of Alfa Romeo, the cryptic typewriter-look of “Maison Martin Margiela.” The forms of these letters tell you exactly the attitude of the products behind them.

And since computers have infiltrated every facet of life over the past two decades, we’ve all become at least peripherally aware of type’s power. We are able to give style to our written content far beyond that of our own handwriting. Our letters are no longer written in the oppressive uniformity of the typewriter (even though, like using Hipstamatic to fake old film photography, we often insist on Courier to fake retro). We now have a huge degree of control over our written environment through the power of desktop publishing. And as publishing itself is revolutionised by the wireless mobile technology of instant gratification, our personal relationship to type will continue to become richer and more complex.

Type is inseparable from place.

Appropriately, type designer Matthew Carter was awarded the lifetime design achievement award by Cooper Hewitt national design museum this month. (And this comes on the heels of a 2010 MacArthur Genius Grant.) Among designers in all fields, his work’s importance was singled out for its huge impact. Like the good, invisible design of “Super Normal,” the book and 2006 Triennale exhibition by Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morisson, the power of Carter’s work lies in its unassuming functionality. It is ubiquitous and looked over, even though when measured by use, the infinite reproduction of the internet means he is probably the most prolific type designer of all time.

Chances are you didn’t notice that you’re reading a text set in Georgia. It’s a serif that looks nice both big and small, and without getting into technical mumbo jumbo like “x-height” and “stroke,” it is an absolute masterpiece. Matthew Carter designed it. He also designed Tahoma, Bell Centennial, Big Caslon, and the most widely-used typeface on the internet, Verdana, as well as several others. The names may or may not mean anything to you, but their effectiveness is extraordinary and you’ve most definitely interacted with all of them. As typography nerds who work extensively on the web, we’re very happy to see a type designer honoured with such an enormous award.


Big Caslon (Top) and Verdana (Above).

Earlier this year, we revealed a new logo as the beginning of a top-secret revolution that’s happening at The Blogazine. We spent weeks in the studio considering typefaces for the logo alongside expert calligrapher Luca Barcellona – we leafed through stacks of 20th century style books and drawers of Luca’s beautiful 19th century wooden type. We wanted a logo that was at once smart, worldly, fashionable, bold and clearly bespoke – essentially, our brand in logo form. Barcellona’s end product combines our signature hexagon with a hybrid B that brilliantly combines elements Gothic and modern type into a powerful whole.

Our identity has been thoroughly enriched.

The Blogazine’s Luca Barcellona-designed logo.

Earlier this year, I was stricken by a banner I saw in a newscast that was being brandished by several Egyptian protesters just before Mubarak’s fall. It was scrawled in bubbly characters and looked like it had come straight from a 1940s Warner Brothers cartoon. In its careless presentation, the protesters’ gravely serious message had lost all effectiveness.

Type is personality. Force. It speaks loud, just like fashion. And like fashion, its signs and significance must be taken seriously. Let’s all take a lesson from master Carter and listen to it – and use it – with care.

Tag Christof 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
27/05/2011

L’Aquila Paper Concert Hall / Shigeru Ban

.

L’Aquila Paper Concert Hall / Shigeru Ban

It’s been just over two years since the disastrous earthquake that destroyed major parts of L’Aquila. The city continues to rebuild, but a tenuous political situation combined with the sheer scope of the damage have so far made it difficult for a complete renaissance. But with continued attention from around the world and a fresh slate to start from, things are looking bright for the city’s future. And on the cultural front, L’Aquila has one more impressive new structure to add to its renewal.

The concert hall is a project of Japanese starchitect Shigeru Ban, whose ingenious paper projects have filled orders for the likes of Hermès and proven a brilliant solution to problems of temporary architecture. All are easily recyclable and cost-effective thanks to their relatively pedestrian and simple materials. Ban’s recent partition structures for the crowded shelters where thousands of earthquake victims in Japan continue to live have proven a success, and his work is a model for the transitional architecture often required in the aftermath of natural disasters.

Like Ban’s other projects of this type, the concert hall is structured around reinforced paper columns – cardboard, essentially. This one in particular is a sort of 21st century homage to the Romans, with its rectangular outer elevation and pitched roof looking vaguely like a marble columned monument. Within the outer structure there is a central, elliptical space with pretty spectacular acoustics (especially considering the walls are paper), with more than 200 seats. The structure can even be torn down and reconstructed elsewhere.


As a gesture from one earthquake-battered nation to another, the structure is a powerful symbol of solidarity and a new ray of hope for L’Aquila.

Tag Christof – Images courtesy Shigeru Ban

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
23/05/2011

The Editorial: Fix It Up

.

The Editorial: Fix It Up

DIY has swept the world. Etsy has become a sprawling platform for thousands of micro creative endeavours. This weekend’s premier Maker Faire event in California’s Bay Area united thousands of do-it-yourself enthusiasts and set the blogosphere and Twitter on fire. And although the thrift shoppe/junk store has fallen out of favour as the prime shopping destination of the voracious hipster (as “hipster” is now merely another easily marketed-to ethnographic group), it is certainly fair to assume that we’ve made significant cultural inroads with this mass-revival of handicraft. But no matter how trendy DIY becomes, we remain a society of wasteful, wasteful children.

Let’s be honest: even the most staunch advocate of DIY lives in a world that is filled primarily with mass-produced objects. Furniture. Appliances. Electronics. Knicknacks. And certainly, we must! Most objects owe their existence in the first place, to the economies of scale and technical precision that is only possible through mass production. But, despite our best efforts, the “planned obsolescence” pioneered by the likes of designers Raymond Loewy and Brooks Stevens’ (and perfected in our generation by Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ives) will remain a major motor of the built economy for the foreseeable future. Simply, mass production isn’t the enemy – rather, it’s our reckless consumption of mass-produced things that is dangerous and unsustainable.

And, indeed, we throw some very nice things away. Our reflex to buy almost always seems to override any logical desire to repair. When something breaks – or starts to look less than perfect – we simply throw it away and replace it. That old espresso maker with a broken handle? Trash. The nice wooden table that would look stylish with a sand down and a new coat of varnish? Rubbish. The lamp that could use a new shade? Garbage. Instead of spending any time getting our hands a bit greasy (and brushing up our dexterity), we toss and re-buy.

While our society’s general propensity for buying cheap junk is part of the problem (throwing out objects designed to have short lives is inevitable), we tend to throw out nice things anytime they become démodé, too. Think of the countless classic rangefinders and Polaroids to be found for a few euros in any suburban junk shoppe that require only a thorough cleaning, a new battery and a roll of film. The beautifully-patterned old clothes waiting to be sewn into something new. The old books with lovely, lost typefaces.

Buying from “curated” vintage shops is concomitant recycling. But a real relationship with your objects – and a real, active contribution to sustainability – requires more than buying and consuming. And the deeper relationship you earn by maintaing older objects is therapeutic. You impose yourself upon them. They become personalised. And a mass object is transformed into a one-of-a-kind.


Our studio – a thoroughly modern, minimal place – is filled primarily with old, found and worked-over treasures: A recovered couch for guests, now painted pristine white. Several early 20th century Thonet chairs. Versatile height-adjustable found wooden stools and a sturdy old multipurpose table. A gorgeous MiM office chair from the line’s original 1960s Made in Italy range (MiM was back then a close relative of Fazioli grand pianos). An entire set of first-run 1974 Kartell 4875 chairs designed by Carlo Bartoli. Our most recent “acquisition,” is a circa 1995 drum scanner (complete with the requisite slightly yellow computer plastic of the era) whose superfluous quality kills that of expensive, much-newer flatbed scanners. Everything but the scanner was found – not searched for – after being thrown away by someone else.

Some of these objects could very well be museum pieces. But we use them, day in and day out because their inherent value is far from used up. And their inherent beauty, we feel, increases with age. Now, this isn’t an appeal for dumpster diving, nor is it a self-righteous lecture about recycling. But disposability is simply out of hand. This is broader than DIY: it’s foolish to think we can escape our manufactured world, so we must instead take steps towards truly engaging with it.

Tag Christof

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
17/05/2011

Mr. Chair / Vin & Mong

.

Mr. Chair / Vin & Mong

Salone Satellite is usually the antidote to the Salone del Mobile’s corporate main event, providing a glimpse at the work of future design greats before it is placed under the pressures of industry and commercialisation. As usual, there were several bright spots, from the impressive Superfarm project to surreal furniture laser-carved from solid blocks of marble, as well as a host of projects dedicated to sustainability and handcraft. But chairs are the lifeblood of Salone, and in this year’s cautious environment our favourite came from Korean design duo Vin & Mong, and just a few weeks after the event, we’re happy to report that the chair will almost certainly see production.

While Fabio Novembre’s surreal inside-a-face “Nemo Chair” for Driade caused quite a stir and Kartell’s huge plastic lineup is the best its been in ages, there was no big-named showstopper this year. No paradigm-challenging design exercises like Vitra’s “Chairless” to wow the crowds.

Vin & Mong’s muscly black chair, however, stopped us in our tracks. Billed Mr. Chair (and not to be confused with Mies Van der Rohe’s iconic MR Chair), it isn’t exactly subtle, but was one of the very few pieces we saw this year to combine generous measures of practicality and genuine imagination, as well as a sense of humour.

The designers’ take on the chair: “During our research of chairs, we found that armchairs and men have a lot in common, Men have arms, skin, and muscles and comparatively, armchairs have arms, leather and cushion. Mr. Chair shows the commonalities with a dignified wit.”

At once a sturdy armchair rendered in buttery soft leather and something to cuddle up with, we appreciate Mr. Chair for its sense of fun – something design has been sorely lacking in these recessionary times. It even captures a fair bit of the late 1970s zeitgeist that’s going around (especially if you hang a gold chain around its “neck”), and definitely provides better photo opportunities than Novembre’s creepy swivelling face.

Tag Christof – Images courtesy Vin & Mong

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
02/05/2011

The Editorial: A Mexican Hipster & Her Acapulco Bike

.

The Editorial: A Mexican Hipster & Her Acapulco Bike

Hipsters haven’t been a cultural minority for quite some time now. In fact, the obnoxiously iconoclast-at-all-cost hipster of yore has ironically been subsumed by his own culture, with even legions of teen girls now burning Lucky Strike and sucking down cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon at “alternative” parties. The famous Adbusters cover of a couple years ago proclaiming the hipster dead proved prophetic, afterall: the term has ceased to mean much of anything, its loose connotations now falling somewhere between 1) the irreverent, self-glorifying eternal teenager embodied in hilarious blog Hipster Runoff (and its countless imitators), 2) suburban kids in garish vintage clothes who have “rediscovered” The Smiths and 3) the design-loving, false-Luddite, artisanal beer-drinking foodie snob embodied in every Brooklynite. Perhaps the one unifying factor among the three is an undying reverence for the fixed-gear bicycle.

Now that the whole world is one gigantic small town in which we all must compete with billions of others, the fight for individuality, however, has taken on special importance. We must all be hipsters at heart, lest we be lost permanently in the crowd. Nevertheless, like so many cultural trends with roots in America and Europe, the hipster’s effect on the world at large has been unpredictable and at times has pitted western cool against the very cultures embracing it. Hipster spread predictably from West Coast USA to western Europe and Britain, and from there onto everywhere else. Now there are Chinese hipsters, African hipsters, Russian ones and Brazilian ones.

During Salone del Mobile, we had a chance run in with a promising young Mexican designer named Ana Gaby Gonzáles on the metro. We, being qualified type 3 hipsters (see above), approached her because of her particularly gorgeous sea-green fixed gear, which, fortunately for us, happened to have been designed by her. It turns out that the bike itself had a rather interesting story behind it, and since it was a clear sign of hipster’s world reach as well as an interesting design study, we invited Ana over for a conversation.

As part of an initiative from Mexico City-based espresso cycles for young Mexican designers to create several one-off bikes representing one of the country’s cities, Ana’s very 1950s colour scheme choice – together with detachable basket and portable umbrella – is an homage to Acapulco. The quintessential Mexican beach destination, which has declined precipitously in recent years, was the designer’s reach into the lost Mexico from her childhood. The problem is, one would never think immediately of Acapulco despite its colours: its essential form is fixed gear minimal and thus says “urban America” in the same way a Vespa painted in any colour says “Italy.”

Ana’s bike instead represents the new and strong cultural mixing that has erased borders in the internet age. Hipster has taken hold in Mexico, and as such, has itself become a part of Mexican culture. The fixed-gear community in the country is now large – check out Mexico Fixed – and well-established. And while the bike may be seen as yet another foreign colonisation of Mexican culture, for Ana it is instead a modernising of Mexico while keeping sight of its roots. And with the Acapulco bike’s well-intentioned mission, its importance ultimately lies in considering whether cultural preservation can be reconciled with progress in the first place.

Just like the dead hipster was overtaken by his own overdone individualism, entire cultures must make certain that they maintain a sense of individualism. Mexico, and Mexican designers especially, must therefore strive to mine their country’s energy and identity to truly preserve while making progress. With its incredible richness of imagery and rich tradition of transportation devices – from the humble improvised food cart to a deep love for vintage automobiles – there’s a lot of inspiration to be had… Ana and her peers are definitely moving in the right direction.

Ana’s bike (which is now permanently hanging around The Blogazine’s bureau) had previously been featured on Core 77 and in an exhibition from Our Cities Ourselves called Nuestras Ciudades Nuestro Futuro: “2030 Diez Ciudades Imaginando La Movilidad” – catch the video here.

Tag Christof 

Share: Facebook,  Twitter  
Next Page » « Previous Page