ROBERT STADLER | OMG-GMO

羅伯特·史塔德勒 | OMG-GMO

菲利普·強生之玻璃屋,康乃狄克州 | 2022年9月24日至12月9日

Carwan Gallery 將於今年九月呈現備受矚目的全新委託創作,由旅居巴黎的設計師 Robert Stadler 操刀,地點位於康乃狄克州新迦南菲利普·強生(Philip Johnson)標誌性的玻璃屋(Glass House)展館內。Robert Stadler 的「OMG-GMO」計畫歷時兩年多籌備,是一系列奇思妙想的陶瓷功能性物件,由設計師、畫廊與義大利頂尖製造商 BITOSSI Ceramiche 三方合作而成。該計畫隨後將於 2023 年 3 月移師歐洲,在 Carwan 位於希臘的旗艦空間展出。

奧地利裔設計師 Robert Stadler 以其多元的創作聞名——涵蓋工業設計、裝置藝術、策展與表演——在他數十年的職業生涯中,始終以批判且理性的方式探討當代議題。受 Carwan Gallery 特別委託,設計師透過對蔬果基因改造的觀察,幽默地評論了人類與環境之間的關係。無瑕的黃色香蕉、果肉豐滿的酪梨、韭蔥、胡蘿蔔以及許多購物籃中的常見食材,被轉化為饒富趣味的功能性物件,這或許是該設計師迄今最為俏皮的作品。

The history of representing fruitage and other produce in art and design is probably as long as the history of art itself. From ancient vessels shaped as their contents, to fanciful Arcimboldo paintings and Renaissance still lifes featuring cornucopias of food, the relationship between produce and aesthetics has been very strong, and persists to this day. In dialogue with this tradition, Robert Stadler’s OMG-GMO highlights the artificiality of the tame fruit and vegetables we cultivate and consume, highlighting the fact that their current form is the result of a very long process of agricultural domestication, selective breeding, and bioengineering. Patiently “designed” over thousands of years, farming products such as tomatoes, bananas, aubergines, and many more have little resemblance to their wild, undomesticated relatives. In more recent years, this engineering has become even more extreme, incorporating genetic modification and sophisticated cultivation techniques that give fruit and vegetables of almost artificial perfection and symmetry — such as square watermelons, straight cucumbers, seedless oranges, calibrated cherries, white strawberries, and more.

For the OMG-GMO project, Robert Stadler borrows the forms of these engineered fruit and vegetables to create nine ceramic, hand-painted objects that ironically transform the organic into something structural and functional. Conceived as a series of small-scale monuments, these objects both criticise and mock human manipulation of nature: a slice of a Japanese rectangular seedless watermelon becomes a stool, zucchini bend in a perfect L shape to create a set of shelves, and wheel-like aubergines support a glass coffee table, as a reference to Gae Aulenti’s Tavolo con ruote. Each object transforms a fruit or vegetable in a functional and clever way, with the master ceramicists at BITOSSI copying in detail their colour and texture.

OMG-GMO is being presented at The Glass House as part of a survey exhibition dedicated to Robert Stadler’s oeuvre. The OMG-GMO objects will be presented as an installation inside the Glass House pavilion itself, transforming the iconic modernist landmark into a greenhouse for alien-looking fruit and vegetables, in contrast with the natural landscape around it. Many other pieces from the designer’s entire career will be installed across the museum’s grounds. OMG-GMO is sold exclusively via Carwan Gallery.

Exhibition details
The Glass House, 199 Elm Street New Canaan, CT 06840
For further info visit: https://theglasshouse.org/visit/

Robert Stadler, OMG-GMO at The Glass House - © Michael Biondo