Posted by Harry
Furniture | 27 Feb 08 | Comments (1) | Stumble
We went to see the North American premiere of Awadare tonight at design gallery Commissaires in Montreal. Awadare is a furniture collection that combines austere painted steel frames with babiche, a leather weaving technique with aboriginal origins that many will recognize from traditional snowshoes. The juxtaposition is striking, the two extremes of structured manufactured modernity and an ancient organic form. That's Mush! above, a lounge chair with a metal base that resembles the runners on a sled. Awadare is the first collection by Samare, a design collective made up of four architect designers (Laurie Bedikian, Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, Mania Bedikian and Patrick Meirim de Barros) who first met at the University of Montreal. After Commissaires the collection is off to Milan and SaloneSatellite, the launch pad for up-and-coming designers.
Mush! close up.
... and framed by Montreal architect Jacques Bilodeau's spin pendant lamp (made of recycled carwash brushes and fiber optics).
It's interesting how Canadian designers are transmitting indigenous(Inuit, Eskimo-Aleutian) materials, techniques and references through their work. It seems more appealing than the staid Modernist substrate they are applied to. None the less this collection is easy on the eyes. -Love the models juxtaposed with the pieces...