The language of things / Deyan Sudjic

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Appreciation towards Daphna Laurens for providing the following description:

From the 20th of June till the 2nd of November 2014 Daphna Laurens presents ‘At first glance’ at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Dresden.

They were invited by the museum to participate among four other design studios in the “Trading places” exhibition. They have been asked to investigate the collection and therefore had the privilege of spending many hours in the depots. Daphna Laurens was entrusted with the task and possibility of selecting a specific object or group of objects and placing the selected pieces in rooms at Pillnitz Palace in a context created by them.

Daphna Laurens设计的Rochaden剪刀系列在Kunstgewerbe博物馆展出。

全面深入地看待“事物”之后尝试着忘却“事物”对我们来说十分重要。我们不会完全忽略以往取得的成就而是在这些成就的基础上优化我们的工艺。相信大部分人们参观博物馆时都会无意识地吸收养分，然后在其他合适时机加以运用，即在忘却事物本身的前提下以无意识的、抽象的方式加以还原。

Daphna Laurens设计的Rochaden剪刀系列展示了上述理论。它们是摒弃了剪刀原型之后形成的剪刀，是剪刀的抽象表达。第一眼看上去，这些剪刀并未显露它们的真实身份，当Herr Knorr（玻璃、陶瓷和金属部门主管）慢慢转动其结构之后才显示它们的真正“动机”。十分令人惊叹！这让我们产生了创造一种能让物体保持运动的装置的想法，希望向博物馆参观者们展示这奇妙的一刻。这些剪刀以动态化的形式呈现出来。形式、运动和潜在功能是该展览的主题。

Daphna Laurens’ Rochaden is displayed at the Kunstgewerbemuseum.

For our design studio it is an important technique to very thoroughly look at ‘things’ and on the other hand try to ‘forget’ about them. By doing so, we do not ignore all of the brilliance that has been brought into being before but respectfully use it to fuel our own processes. We think that this is what most people, be it unconsciously, do when visiting a museum. ‘Feed’ them selves and at another moment in time put it into use, literally as an artist or on a very unaware and abstract level in social life while having a political discussion.

The scissors Daphna Laurens selected to work with for the Rochaden project plays with the above theory about archetypes, actually you could say that this pair of scissors just missed ‘it’ to become one. At first glance the object didn’t clearly reveal its purpose, only when demonstrated in motion by Herr Knorr (head of the glass, ceramic and metal department) the object revealed its true ‘motive’. Our amazement at that moment inspired us to create an installation in which objects are in motion. Striving to ‘re’-create and present this moment to the visitors of the museum. The scissors (a reproduction by Daphna Laurens) will be presented in motion, alongside three other moving / kinetic objects. Form, Movement and potential Function are keywords for the presentation.

More information:

An introduction to Daphna Laurens’ Rochaden at the Kunstgewerbemuseum.

Visiting the Kunstgewerbe museum visitors will be astonished by the overwhelming amount, the quality of crafts and cultural richness of the objects that are on display. Although the ‘open to public’ part of the museum is very impressive to start with, we feel very fortunate to be invited for the Rochaden project and as a part of that being guided through the Schloss Pillnitz museum depots. We were treated with many examples of how Kunstgewerbe / crafts around the world evolved and how it still is of great influence to craft and design nowadays. The quality that many of the objects express is amazing, especially when knowing how technically difficult and expensive it is to produce comparable objects this very day. At the same time we need to recognise and take into account that a large part of the collection was not used daily by the middle-class / working-class but used to belong to the upper classes and even monarchs. Nevertheless, being surrounded by all of these items, our thoughts about where object originate, how they function and how this relates to a design process
set off.

“It is not just how an object looks that is the key to the creation of an archetype. A commanding archetype needs a form that can communicate what it does, and what the user needs to do to make it work. If an object comes with an extensive instruction manual, you can be fairly confident that it’s never going to be an archetype. Some archetypes have millennia-long histories, with generation after generation producing their own particular interpretations of a given format. These are archetypes that have become so universal as to be invisible, each version building on its predecessors to continually refresh the basic parameters.”

“By working within the framework of archetypes, there is the possibility of bringing some psychological and emotional depth to the design of objects. Even if our possessions do not age well, and we continually replace them, designs that evoke archetypes offer a consoling sense of continuity. They introduce a ready-made history for an object.”

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