Design, dance, and sculpture dictate Simon Hamui and Edgar Orlaineta’s furniture

It is often indicated that all creative work is derivative. From a sculptor’s adorned model and a painter’s daubed illustration, to a poet’s verse, an architect’s sketch, and a designer’s style, artistic endeavours seldom belie congruity with natural dispositions and previously crafted compositions. However, when these bouts of creativity transcend concerted disciplines to derive inspiration from aesthetic outfits of a disparate realm, the result becomes more dynamic, with an exceeding conformity to the sundry complexity of life. One can surmise that it is the stories and ideas behind artistically crafted objects, artworks, rhymes, performances, or dances, that suffuse artistic expressions with life. Visual artist, painter, and sculptor Edgar Orlaineta, and designer Simon Hamui recently undertook a collaborative project that arose from the appreciation of myriad narratives and various fields such as contemporary art and design, dance, costume design, sculpting, and more.

The ensuing furniture design collection, comprising a lounge chair, a coffee table, and a bookcase, bears an unusual title: Variations on Non-Euclidean (Miss Expanding Universe) - A Bibliography. The first part of the title, ‘Variations on Non-Euclidean,’ hints at the non-organic (non-Euclidean) forms that Orlaineta and Hamui play with, to derive the final forms of the pieces. The second half, ‘Miss Expanding Universe,’ is the name of a sculpture that Isamu Noguchi crafted, inspired by Ruth Page, an American ballerina and choreographer. In turn, Page was inspired by the sculpture to create a choreography entitled ‘Expanding Universe.’ In taking inspiration from both the name and the form of Noguchi’s sculpture, Hamui and Orlaineta manage to evoke the image of a dancing ballerina and a renowned sculptor’s craft.

"Beyond the theme, this project challenges the limits established between art and design. Ideas originating from an aesthetic and conceptual subjectivity were taken and developed objectively under the designer's approach, making use of his methodology, technique, and functional consciousness,” shares Orlaineta, who resides in Mexico City, Mexico. “This furniture is inspired by dance, sculpture, and design of the 1930s, as well as the work of the dancer Ruth Page, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and on the ideas of the astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington," the Mexican designer adds.

The three pieces in the furniture collection are entitled the ‘Ruth Lounge Chair,’ the ‘Redshift Table,’ and the ‘Miss Expanding Universe‘ bookcase. Orlaineta performed extensive research on the dance forms and costumes of the avant-garde dancer, the sculptures created by Noguchi as an ode to the dancer, as well as the house (built by architect Howard T. Fisher) in which she lived. “A house, a dancer and a sculptor. These pieces are born from an exploration of architecture, dance and sculpture, having as its main reference, the avant-garde ballet dancer and choreographer Ruth Page,” the collaborators reiterate.

This faceted exploration by Hamui and Orlaineta serves utilitarian purposes, while also drawing focus to a seldom explored part of Noguchi's life, as well as the ephemeral nature of his muse's vocation. “The image of Page living in a house made entirely of steel, created by architect Howard T. Fisher, was enough to stimulate the imagination and speculate on the spatial and temporary relationships between dance, architecture, and objects,” the Mexican artist and designer share.

Although the craftsmanship and manufacturing process undertaken to shape these three pieces are not central to the process or theme of the Variations on Non-Euclidean (Miss Expanding Universe) - A Bibliography collection, adequate focus is leveraged on their development. The product designs were first exhibited as part of a multidisciplinary exhibition at David Alfaro Siqueiros’s house studio, referred to as 'La Tallera,' a public institution belonging to the network of museums of the National Institute of Fine Arts, located in Cuernavaca, in Morelos. Just like the furniture pieces, which derive inspiration from architecture, dance, and sculpture, 'La Tallera,' is a space where architecture and Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros’s mural paintings converge.