Winifred Wikkeling

So we’re finding ourselves a bit uninspired these days. Our thirst for beauty is not being met though we admit to perhaps not being entirely in the best place to receive it.

Our mood

has rather

mirrored

The dark celebration of Gehard Demetz

We feel grumpy. We feel annoyed. We feel disappointed that we were not exactly blown away by Dutch Design Week. We could barely bring ourselves to discuss it. Amidst all this cleverness we found ourselves wandering in search of beauty like Arctic explorers in a blinding snowstorm…But in our detached and barely awake for it state, we noticed something that someone living in New York could certainly appreciate.

Badkast by Anna van der Lei

Though this bath within a closet perked us up, we can’t be certain we would entrust to it some of our more precious wardrobe pieces…

Pixelated Chair By Studio Makkink & Bey

Via Design Boom

Ah…the Dutch. Clever, liberated, progressive, open. Intellectually curious about all cultures, history and creativity. Humanitarians? Yes, Internationale Zamenwerking tells us just how so. As does a very relaxed justice system. It is fitting then that Studio Makkink & Bey would create this project titled ‘A Poor Haute Couture,’ a commentary on consolidation in the luxury market and the left over materials that are normally not of interest in design. We wondered: was it the landscape free of a death penalty that allowed this chair to take shape? Our first glance made us shiver, our second glance made us confused, our third made us blush a little. Though we like this free form design, unplanned and unstructured, we continue to feel a bit of anxiety. Is the overeenkomst with the electric chair apparent to us alone?

Perspective Chair by Pharrell Williams

Occasionally we suffer bouts of self importance that lead us to believe the designer should tailor their work to match our tastes and desires rather than their own. Such is the case with this chair. Though not Dutch, not particularly clever and not quite beautiful, we were moved by the perspective. But for all the innuendo of this design, we are mostly left cold. We suspect we could be far more likely seduced by a chair that exudes warmth and passion in its craftsmanship; something that gives us the sense that the designer’s own hands touched it, assembled it and carved his vision to life. This chair makes us want for the warmth of wood, the seduction of black, the strength of an epoxy finish, the passion of manual labor. We wish to commission a re-make.