“Prior to every storm there is a moment of clarity and quiet space, the pre-cursor to the dutiful chaos that will ensue, a moment where procedural development begins; it is this nexus that is “Before the Fantastic...”
Is design an emotion? Does one respond emotionally to design? Is design born of emotion? Pieces of art, sculpture, architecture, verse and beyond, are born of thoughts or moments of inspiration, distress or clarity. Function and aesthetics get sewn into these ‘moments,’ to form tangibility. Cohesively, coupled with behavioural and psychological cognition, this drives a user’s experience. Like how tiny (read: unsatisfactory) portions of fancy food taste unique in designer dinner-ware under choreographed lighting, or how you’d pick a book dressed in an attractive graphic cover, instead of a plain one.
Donald A. Norman, author of Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things mentions—“attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively. How does that make something easier to use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the problems they encounter.” Seldom knowingly and often unknowingly, emotion is strictly tied to design, especially objects of use. So how does one translate that initial, intangible emotion and idea that leads to the creation of a corporeal product, as literal personification?
Puerto Rican artist and designer Reynold Rodriguez translates, begins, and fashions moments and emotions that precede actual objects of design with his debut body of work, devised in his solo exhibition, ‘Before The Fantastic…’. On show at the Charles Burnand Gallery in London, UK, from October 24, 2022 until January 13, 2023, the design exhibition comprises a collection of product designs realised over the past two years, where initial ideas take shape as actual, utilitarian forms.
Underscored by “a very particular moment of creation, the instance when the nebula in our mind lights up and the synapses connect, crystallising an emotion or idea into a form”, ‘Before The Fantastic...' marks a new partnership between Rodriguez and Charles Burnand Gallery. The award-winning multi-disciplinary designer and artist’s work encompasses furniture design, interior design and special projects, including handmade furniture and lighting made from plaster and salvaged wood. These unique pieces seem relatable and incite curiosity, stemming from Rodriguez’ two decades of creative experience which was preceded by an industrial design degree from the Rhode Island School of Design.
The canon of work includes wistful pieces such as The Table That Dreamed...(Of Being Light), an ivory white lamp design made of polished gypsum plaster and LED, and as its moniker suggests, takes on the hybrid form of a three-legged table that grew an elongated neck and a light for a face. The Saddest Lamp... (In The World), dwarfs in comparison, in its wooden black form done in polished and stained gypsum plaster, its cylindrical head lowered as if carrying the weight of the world.
A fair-skinned chaise lounge titled Acuestate Y No Jodas Mas reveals ease in posture, with its solid, homogenous body of polished gypsum plaster, leather, and brass resting on stubby legs painted a muted gold, while the hand-crafted Mamut chair design with conjoined legs bears a stricter form, made of charred, hand-carved almendron. All pieces comprising the collection, are a series of ‘moments’ created through emotion and form, in uncluttered, smooth geometries, and a colour palette that remains largely homogenous.
“The distinctive, highly characterised works of Reynold Rodriguez combine endless wit and drama. This, fused with an innate understanding of materiality, forms which are often exaggerated, and a strong narrative makes for unique highly desirable and collectable pieces,” says Simon Stewart, owner of the Charles Burnand Gallery, which has garnered a reputation for representing established and emerging designers and artists, alike.
“I was incredibly drawn to the level of work coming out of the partnership the gallery shares with many of its artists. The exquisite materiality of the works felt very much like a place where dreams like mine can be materialised. My conversations with Simon truly energised my desire to continue expanding the series that has brought me thus far. I am now filled with a sense that in the following months the work curated for this show will be known and understood to belong to a period right Before the Fantastic…,” Rodriguez relays.
The product designer and artist explains his creative process as an exercise in understanding the relationship between objects and how they are made. Based in San Juan, his design studio often fashion projects that merge new techniques and materials that are foreign to his cultural environment. As evident in his debut exhibition, Rodriguez’s works exist in a limbo of aesthetic functionality, and a dreamlike stance, described by him as “caused by fascination with impermanence and belief that every work of art refers to a moment or a feeling that we can never relive, much like a dream.”
Before the Fantastic... will remain on display at the Charles Burnand Gallery in London, from October 24, 2022, to January 13, 2023.
What do you think?