Fifty Four Blocks, 2022
Medium: Painted wood blocks (installation), Offset print (publication)
Dimension: 160x480x100mm (each) 54 pieces, 250x340mm (publication)
Commision: HEAR, festival Format(s)
Collaborator: Na Kim, Patrick Lindsay, Fanette Mellier, Ivan Murit (participating artists), Yohanna-My Nguyen, Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié (project coordination), Lize Braat, Franck Knoery, Marine Tourret (collaboration from the Musées de Strasbourg), Antoine Lejolivet (exhibition coordination), Manon Brunel, Axel Alousque, Léa Govignon, Léa Panijel (participating students)
Exhibition title: Histoire de Formes
Venue: La Chaufferie, HEAR, Strasbourg, FR
Period: 2022.10.07—2022.11.20
Histoire de formes, a contemporary interpretation of the Grammar of Ornament – a sourcebook on the primary forms of ornamental patterns by Owen Jones – by Na Kim, Patrick Lindsay, Fanette Mellier and Ivan Murit at La Chaufferie, HEAR, Strasbourg. For several years now, the graphic design department of HEAR Strasbourg has been collaborating with the library of the Museum of modern and contemporary art to highlight the library’s collection, making it visible to a broader audience.
This year the master students invited four graphic designers to offer a new perspective on the Grammar of Ornament – of which two copies are part of the Museum library collection and whose ambition was to inspire artists, architects, and decorators. This publication – containing original contributions and interviews – aims to rediscover a significant model of the decorative arts and its legacy seen from a contemporary point of view and through the lens of designers whose practice gives a particular echo to Owen Jones’ enterprise. The exhibition Histoire de formes expands the contributions of the four artists in the spatial installation.
(From the HEAR exhibition archive)
I wanted to materialize Owen Jones' legacy in a functional but playful format for this exhibition, widely known as the Jenga puzzle game. Ambitiously enough, his project suggested an objective understanding of the grammar in his collection, but more is needed to achieve it, as we know. In the end, what I love about this work is the utopian idea and romantic gesture like purity in playing a game. The Fifty Four Blocks has nine units with six patterns, initiated from the primary forms referring Found Composition.