Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 17 May 2019
Museums laud design inspired by, committed to nature

By KATHERINE ROTH an environmentally friendly
Associated Press alternative to traditional
The Cooper Hewitt Smithso- coffins or cremation. And
nian Design Museum in New “Totomoxle” features wall
York and the Cube design panels made from heir-
museum in Kerkrade, Neth- loom corn husks, with their
erlands, have joined forces naturally vibrant colors.
in “Nature,” a blockbuster Nearby is a “Monarch
show devoted to cutting- Sanctuary,” which imag-
edge designs both inspired ines how the facades of
by nature and entwined in buildings could be recon-
nature, with a focus on sus- ceived to become butter-
tainability. fly sanctuaries, with places
The show is sobering, at for native plants like milk-
times humorous, sometimes weed to grow. As if all that
heart-breaking (an extinct weren’t mind-bending
rhino that is made to come enough, the main hall fea-
to life digitally, then vanish tures a work that resembles
again in an instant), and a strange, enormously tall,
decidedly uplifting when sort of colorful insect wing.
taken in as a whole. The panels of the wing-like
“We searched labs and sculpture, “Aguahoja II,”
design studios around the are made largely of pec-
world looking for innova- This May 9, 2019 photo shows an Installation view of “Nature Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” at tin and shrimp shells, with
tive designs,” says Andrea the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. Associated Press colors derived from natural
Lipps, one of the curators at Hewitt Smithsonian Design “Curiosity Cloud” by the Back in the galleries, “Goat- sources like squid ink and
Cooper Hewitt who helped Museum, the show is or- Austrian design team man” describes a project beets. “It’s theoretically
organize the show for the ganized thematically into Mischer’Traxler. The work, in which British designer even edible,” says Lipps.
museum’s triennial. And sections titled Understand, designed to draw attention Thomas Thwaites created The work is meant to draw
they found them: “There Simulate, Salvage, Facili- to nature’s fragility, is com- a complex exoskeleton for attention to the fact that
are a lot of people, from all tate, Augment, Remediate posed of glass bulbs, each himself that allowed him to while permanent materials
different disciplines, joining and Nurture. At the Cooper containing a handmade literally live — and eat grass like metal and stone have
together and working very, Hewitt, the sprawling exhib- version of an insect species — among goats for three long been revered, there is
very hard to find creative it opens on the main floor, native to New York. When days. also value in materials de-
solutions to the enormous includes an enormous work visitors walk through the “It meant eating a lot of signed to have a limited
challenges we face.” installed in the garden, and delicate bulbs, the insects grass, and he missed be- lifespan and then go back
“Nature,” which explores winds around and up to flutter, their wings clicking ing a human after that,” to nature, she explains.
the ways designs drawn the third floor. against the glass. Lipps says. “But he learned On the third floor of the
from nature can address The “Understand” section In the garden, “Petrified a great deal about simplifi- museum, “Fantasma,”
today’s environmental explores ways designers River” is an immense work cation.” made by a Japanese de-
challenges, features 62 can use scientific knowl- made of cast concrete — The “Remediate” section sign team, features natu-
designers from around the edge to enhance under- an imagined landscape of includes a “Sustainable rally glowing silk made from
world. The show opened at standing of nature, and Manhattan before being Burial Suit” seeded with silkworms injected with a
both museums simultane- features a work called settled by Europeans. mushrooms, meant to be green fluorescent protein
ously on May 10, and will re- derived from jellyfish.
main on view at both ven- In the “Salvage” section,
ues through Jan. 20, 2020. meanwhile, ink has been
“With 2018 the Earth’s derived from exhaust soot
fourth-warmest year on re- — a practical use for pol-
cord and global carbon lution. There is also a pro-
emissions at an all-time totype for Adidas sneakers
high, the crisis of human- made entirely of ocean
caused climate change plastic, and another proto-
has never been more dire,” type of sneakers that would
says Caroline Baumann, be entirely compostable.
director of the Cooper Nearby are beautiful ves-
Hewitt. sels made from 3-D printed
“Solutions will not emerge bioplastic derived from al-
without radical new think- gae, bandages inspired by
ing. ‘Nature’ brings to- the adhesive that helps sea
gether some of the most slugs cling to wet surfaces,
creative and intelligent and a lamp powered by
designers whose works ad- the microorganisms in a cy-
dress our complex relation- lindrical container of soil.
ship to nature and its pre- “There’s a level of optimism
cious resources, and advo- when you look around and
cate for greater empathy see designers really tak-
for our planet,” she says. ing on the challenge of all
Accompanied by a de- this,” Lipps says. “There’s
tailed book, “Nature: Col- a groundswell of creativ-
laborations in Design,” This May 9, 2019 photo shows an Installation view of “Nature Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” at the ity that’s continuing to
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
published by the Cooper Associated Press reverberate.”q