Works on View:
Lindsey Adams, Bec Brittain
Oil rubbed bronze, Hand-painted ivory globes
69"L x 46"W x 56"H
Off-Grid Credenza, Grain
FSC certified solid American ash
72"L x 20.5"W x 30"H
Bend/Arc Desk, KWH Furniture
White oak, Brass, Leather
60"L x 27"W x 30"H
The Knockoff Show on view through June 5 M-F 12-6 PM
To The Source
The Knockoff Show tasked designers to identify a source of inspiration from the past (see below) and create an entirely new piece of work (see above)...
bec brittain
Lindsey Adams takes inspiration from Lindsey Adelman’s Branching Bubble, a ubiquitous design that has a personal link for Bec Brittain who left Adelman’s studio to form her solo practice twelve years ago. Named after Lindsey’s maiden name “Adams”, the piece exhibited is just as much a knockoff as it is an homage to Brittain’s past and early career in the lighting industry. Alongside Branching Bubble, Brittain also drew from a project she began back in 2013, where she created freeform shapes with lines of SHY bulbs.
“Both Lindsey and I rely heavily on "systems" of parts that can be put together in a countless number of ways. This knock off is substituting my kit of parts for hers, making analogies along the way. Her lines are tubes, my lines are the light bulbs. Her bulbs are globes, mine are the double diamond FKA Themis shapes.”
- Bec Brittain
KWH FURNITURE
The Bend/Arc Desk by KWH Furniture finds inspiration in an unlikely source, a trash can. Kai-wei Hsu came upon this particular trash can, made by Bottega Ghianda and designed by Emanuela Frattini Magnussion, back in 2016. Made up of multiple bent laminate verticals joined together at the corners for strength, each spoke of the Bend/Arc Desk is a singular component in its complex form.
Grain
Grain’s Off Grid Credenza takes inspiration from the distinctive checkerboard pattern and functional pivot hinge of a Door for an Inner Room made in the late 19th century by an unnamed Baule artist in what is now the Ivory Coast. Found within the pages of African Art in the Barnes Foundation, it was not the beautifully carved bird, crocodile and mask motifs on the front of the door that drew designers Chelsea and James Minola in, but instead the tactility of the imperfect check pattern on the door’s rear. With the check pattern originating as far back as 10,000 BC as a by-product of the textile weaving process, the Off-Grid Credenza shows reverence for its rich history and inspiration while still creating a functional piece of furniture for contemporary interiors.
“We know that the work that we make is never just ours. We know this first and foremost because we have always worked in partnership with each other, our employees and even the expertise of our vendors. We know this because we often can’t remember where something started or whose idea initiated the conversation. It is always a result of our collective lived experience and often it is hard to pull apart where inspiration stops and origination begins.”
- Chelsea Minola