On the Road – Design Miami

The Design Miami show is held in Miami Beach once a year at the same time as the famous Art Basel show and dozens of other exhibits and shows. I like to visit  to see what’s new and what looks like much earlier designs. This year there was an art piece that was inspired by a Victorian chair, Danish pottery from the 1960s, new jewelry that looked as if it was made in the 1600s, and, most surprising, a booth filled with original Shaker furniture.

Since I live on what once was a Shaker farm and studied the religious settlement in elementary school, I was surprised that almost no one going into the booth had ever heard of them. The best and most expensive Shaker furniture from the settlements’ buildings from the 19th century are very important antique auction items. It has simple lines and was made to be functional and unadorned. The furniture they made and sold to the public was not as costly. In the ’70s, a chair with a tape seat was over $1,000. The Shakers kept their chairs hanging on wall racks when not in use. It made more space in the room and it was easier to clean. Today, good Shaker chairs are about $150 to $300. The show’s furniture dated back to the Shaker Village in Hancock, Massachusetts, so I wasn’t surprised when I was told a desk sold for $35,000.

One of the best exhibits I saw was an installation by Studio Swine of London in Temple House, an Art Deco building ten minutes from the Design show. It was, according to the invitation, “an interactive multisensory installation.” Inside it looked like a basketball court with what seemed to be plumbing pipes of various lengths hung to look like a tree hanging from the ceiling. We were handed gloves. Inside, everyone was running around and laughing as they tried to catch the big bubbles that were coming out of the pipes. With the gloves on and if you were very gentle and very fast, you could catch a mist-filled bubble and hand it to someone. Most people, and I was one, kept trying. But each time the bubble burst, I had a smoky mist in my face. I tried until finally, I was able hold a bubble for the minute it lasted. Great fun!

I only spent a few hours in the huge Art Basel exhibit. It would take at least two full days to cover the area and almost all the art was cutting-edge modern. Interesting, but not what I collect.

 

Jaydan Moore has a studio with a huge pile of old, damaged silver-plated wares he turns into modern sculptures. This is a platter that was made of vintage silver-plated trivets. It sold to a museum for $46,000.

Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) made sculptures using iron bars and glass for years. She was also a painter, print maker, and jewelry designer. Her iron rod and glass bottle sculptures at the show were about 14 inches wide and sold for prices from $50,000 to $140,000.

This chair and table was made using twisted bamboo tied with colored rock climbing cord. It is interesting to look at, but the chairs have very scratchy seats. They were made by Doug and Mike Starn, identical twins who are best known for their installation on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s roof called “Big Bambú,” an interesting bamboo forest.

The Moss Girl was at last year’s show and I wanted to buy it for the garden until I learned it was $14,000. This year her Moss family was included in the show, like this young girl dressed as an astronaut holding her helmet. The figures are made of special material like cement that looks and feels like moss.

This full-sized copy of a Victorian chair is made of a soft wood that was carved by the artist. The dealer told me it was made about 1978. The chair was stored for a while in a space with live insects like termites who crawled into the carved spaces and made deep tunnel-like holes. When the artist was satisfied with the insects’ work, he killed them. He then had a ceremonial funeral “so there could never be an exact duplicate of the chair.” Price, $28,000.

This looks like something to build in a garden. “Pallets” is by Charles Harlan. It is made of stone, wood, steel, and plastic stacked on pallets. It is 72 inches high. Harlan assembles objects and makes large sculptures that look like altered everyday items in a bigger size.

At first, I thought this flat fiberglass “man” was a statue. Then the dealer put it on the floor and we learned it was a lounge chair made in 1968 by Olivier Mourgue. There are several later versions offered online for $2,000 to $4,000, some in bright colors, and they are known as “Bouloum” lounge chairs.

The French hostesses in this booth kept telling us that the artist who made these items was so original. She collected antique and vintage tin containers and then cut them to make these tin folk art pieces. Each “sculpture” was priced over $10,000.

No, it is not a stool made from a tree stump. It is a metal chair by Maria Pergay. It is 18 inches high, just the right height for a chair seat. The chair is one of 12 made in 2012. Asking price, $48,000. Pergay used stainless steel to create a “wooden stump.” She marked it to look like a stump with tree rings and cracks.

 


 

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