Although called a furniture exhibition, some of the pieces were not in the least reminiscent of anything most of us have ever seen in a home. And though both Western and Chinese influences were strongly evident, yet one would have been hard pressed to label any item as belonging to either East or West.
If the designs seemed unusual, the construction materials were not less so. Close examination revealed layered, multi-colored artifacts not unlike layer cakes.
We combated our ignorance, during that first trip to the exhibit, with some research upon returning home. Revealed was the fact that we had been exposed to one of the latest and most fashionable trends throughout the world in con temporary furniture-the use of the revolutionary material called Colorcore in post-modern pieces. In the case of the Furama exhibition, there was also a distinctly Chinese flavor.
Colorcore is a recent innovation on the well-known material Formica, which is produced by the same American company and has been a household word in America and much of Europe for almost the past sixty years. Known for its ability to resist high temperatures and stains, and easily cleaned with a damp cloth, Formica has covered lunch counters and kitchen tops across America and elsewhere for many a decade.
Given such applications, how did Formica end up as a material of choice for contemporary furniture by some of the world's most famous designers? The answer points to an interesting collaboration between industry and art. Yet to avoid putting the carriage before the horse, a brief introduction to the concept of post-modern design is required to underwrite that collaborative effort.
Design concepts in modernism, with almost fanatic emphasis on utilitarianism, were the leading influence in architectural and interior design from the 1920s until almost the middle 70s. A reflection of both changing life modes and the rapid advances of industry, modernism came as a blow to devotees of many traditional concepts of design.
Though the ramifications varied from field to field, in furniture design they meant doing away not only with the former styles and shapes of traditional furniture, but abandonment of the classic medium-natural wood. Designs were now executed in strictly functional style in such materials as tubular steel, laminates, and most significantly, plastics. If the utilitarian emphasis was the result of changing lifestyles and philosophy, the new choice of materials was no doubt also spurred by industrial innovation.
In retrospect, from the beginning of modernism through to the present, art and industry have never strayed far from one another. As eager as artists and designers have always been to find new materials for experiment, so has industry been willing to exploit their market potential (although it is decidedly difficult to say which came first, the chicken or the egg). In any case, the interchange was vigorous both in America and Europe in the post-war era of the late 40s and the 50s, and many earlier innovations in plastics technology now found applications in the designs of a peacetime economy.
The influence of modernism was profound and far reaching, but not forever. Too impersonal, often grim and lacking in color, and heavily sacrificing aesthetic principles in its quest for functional perfection, modernism came under heavy criticism in the 70s. Finally, in 1977, the famous designer Charles Jencks, in his book The Language of Post Modern Architecture, declared modernism more or less dead—a view which echoed throughout the world of design.
In its wake came a reassessment on the part of architects and designers regarding the role of ornament, color, and decorative effect in the modernist philosophy. A new philosophy of design then acknowledged functionalism, without making it the focal point; incorporated elements of regional, vernacular, and period styles in imaginative ways; and creatively applied a wide variety of materials. This renaissance in design was called post-modernism.
Like most revolutions, post-modernism found itself somewhat floundering in the beginning, rather unsure of what direction to move in. Gradually, however, things began to take shape, and in the beginning of the 80s, finally took off with the organization of Memphis-a Milan-based design consortium led by the prominent Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, Jr.
Sottsass and his Memphis group drastically altered and reinvented conventional furniture forms, taking their inspiration from such places as ancient Egypt and the American South. Designs of the Memphis group were not strictly lacking in functional elements, but specially evident were aspects of humor and social comment expressed through the medium of furniture.
Also important, this trend-selling design group was the first to grasp the potential of using plastic laminates in furniture design. And of those used, the previously mentioned Colorcore has proved to be the most significant.
Although, at first, a great number of traditionalists were shocked at the use of "lunch countertops" in the execution of fine furniture, Sottsass' outstanding designs triumphed by highlighting the inherent characteristics of Colorcore. Behaving under fabrication like a natural material, Colorcore can be etched, layered, routed, and even joined and beveled, creating illusions of depth on volumetric pieces since it is color-permeated and, so, without the dark edge of standard laminates. Also, the tremendous variety of available colors (one reference claims 94) gives free reign to design concepts expressed through color. Given the Memphis group's efforts, even the traditionalists were soon won over.
Prominent international designers and artists started experimenting with Memphis-based concepts. Eventually, with the support of the Formica Corporation, financial and otherwise, many of these prominent designers were called together to create pieces of furniture utilizing (but not strictly limited to) Colorcore for an international exhibit.
This exhibit, which comprised over 100 different pieces, received quite a bit of publicity and was widely traveled. In 1985 the exhibit went to Japan, and in March of 1986, fourteen of the pieces finally made their way to the Taipei Museum of Fine Arts.
The Asian leg of the tour, as was the case in Europe and America, was favorably received. However, Asian designers were not to be outdone. As previously mentioned, the vernacular and regional aspect is an important part of the post-modernism design concept, and no matter how brilliant the works of European and American designers, they do not represent Asian culture bases. Therefore, included in the Japanese exhibit were works by several well known Japanese designers.
"Its (the furniture's) rhetoric is Japanese in spirit, with Western learning—or a construction of the context, with Japanese image and concept, supported by Western creative language," said the famous Japanese designer Masanori Umeda. Underwriting the need for Japanese image and concept within the medium of post-modernism, Umeda added, "No matter how extensively our lifestyle may change (no doubt referring to Westernization), still I believe that our national aesthetic sense, cultivated over a long period of time, will remain eternal. "
If the inclusion of pieces by Japanese artists was an event in the Japanese design world, their ROC counterparts seem to have gone one step further. In response to the impact of the March 86 exhibit at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, one Taipei design consortium decided to stage a separate exhibition, a month after the Fine Arts Museum exhibit, which would solely feature pieces by local artists. Each of the thirteen consortium members contributed one work to the exhibit. Although some of these were of a Western post-modern bent, many of the thirteen showed a very strong affinity to the cultural roots of China.
The varied educational and occupational backgrounds of the thirteen contributing Chinese artists showed up in the concepts and execution of their exhibited works. Some chose to emphasis concepts of line and design, others the creative application of materials; still others opted to utilize post-modern design concepts as social comment by the artist.
Chou Chung-yen's dressing bureau, titled "Female Power," makes use of feminine colors of pink and purple while emphasizing, through the use of strong line, the prominence and strength of women in modern society. A piece entitled "The Scholar's Desk" showed emphasized-color patterning using Colorcore.
Seiji Chang's work, "Shadow of the Past Within the Frame," encased a full-scale Ming Dynasty style armchair within and projecting out of a three-sided box-like structure. Exaggerating the already rigid structure of the classic armchair, Chang appears to note the influence of certain social conventions on the present society.
Asked to comment, Seiji laughed: "Of course every artist has his own point of reference designing and expressing a unique message in any piece. However, each viewer has his own perspective assessing the works of others, and from this comes a personal interpretation of what the artist is presenting. This too is valid." His colleague, Chou, had less patience: "This work itself is both the question and the answer."
Well known Western designer Brian Faucheux once said, "Good design should be capable of being appreciated by all who may experience it, whether it be architecture or furniture design. Such must serve a wide audience, from casual user to ardent critic, and it is here that depth in one's work can produce truly successful designs accessible to everyone."
Not every exhibit item was necessarily steeped in deep social comment. For example, Wu Yu-chi's work, "The Bench," of wood and Colorcore, is indeed a bench, but in the shape of a large, double-tipped pencil.
Post-modern furniture design has really only taken off on the international scene in the last few years, and in the ROC, the Furama exhibit was a true pathbreaker. Although it would be fair to say that the works at the Furama exhibit didn't quite reach the maturity and sophistication of those of some of the most seasoned international designers, for first efforts they were certainly laudable. If this first exhibit is any indication, perhaps someday in the near future, the works of ROC designers will find full international recognition alongside those of today's most prominent global designers.