第八章 后现代主义设计运动(第21/22页)

格雷夫斯为『孟菲斯』设计的『普拉扎』梳妆台。

赫伯特·魏纳德设计的球形吊灯(1985)。

仓俣史朗设计的『布朗奇小姐』扶手椅。

阿拉德设计的『绕绕椅』(Loop Loop Chair, 1994)。

仓俣史朗的设计作品——『月亮有多高』铁网沙发。

阿拉德设计的『舞台灯』。

阿拉德设计的『书虫』书架。

格雷夫斯曾受邀成为“孟菲斯”的成员之一,他为“孟菲斯”展览设计过许多作品,1981年设计的名为“普拉扎”的梳妆台(Plaza dressing table and stool)就是其中一个突出的例子。这套家具借用了装饰艺术(Art Deco)风格的一些造型动机,以稀有的鸟眼枫木为材料,镜子周围用许多个小灯泡营造出波普艺术的味道,表现出格雷夫斯这个时期设计中的历史折中主义倾向。他为纽约家具厂商苏纳豪斯曼(Sunarhauserman, Inc.)设计展示室室内、壁画和家具的时候,也是走豪华路线,而借用的则是新古典主义的历史风格。

进入1990年代以后,格雷夫斯在他的设计公司里成立了专门的产品设计部,后来还开设了自己的商店,出售他设计的产品。后来,他更与美国的“标的”“杰西-潘尼”等比较大众化的百货公司签约,为它们设计各种金属的、塑料的家庭用具和厨房用品,他的产品设计方向也从限量版的奢侈品转为批量生产的日用品了。格雷夫斯终于实现了 他的理想——要让他的设计为美国广大的普通消费者服务。

格雷夫斯具有非常杰出的绘画才华,擅长用绘画来表达自己的思路和想法,对于视觉内容具有特别精细的敏感度。他非常注重造型,对于图案、装饰细节都有很好的掌控。他经常选用灰蓝、土红等比较含蓄的奢华色调作为自己的代表性色彩计划。

格雷夫斯善于将历史风格与现代艺术元素结合起来,善于将知识分子的阳春白雪和普罗大众的通俗文化融合起来,在调侃、诙谐中不失优雅。格雷夫斯是一位设计上的多面手,不但设计建筑,而且设计金属制品、陶瓷、文具、餐具、纺织品等多种产品。他的产品设计,不是一时兴起之举,而是长达超过1/4世纪的连续努力。

格雷夫斯曾获得150多个设计奖,其中包括1999年美国国家艺术大奖(National Medal of Arts)以及2001年美国建筑师协会金奖(AIA's Gold Medal)等重要奖项。

2003年,格雷夫斯因为细菌感染而导致半身瘫痪,但他仍然很积极地从事建筑设计工作,他近年来完成的项目有2012年开幕的新加坡圣淘沙国际旅游中心(Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore)和底特律艺术学院加建工程(Addition to the Detroit Institute of Arts)等。

除了格雷夫斯以外,美国还有一些设计师投入了后现代主义风格的产品设计,其中大部分是建筑师,如罗伯特·文丘里、佛兰克·盖利、斯坦利·泰格曼、查尔斯·詹克斯等。

要对后现代主义设计下一个确切的定义并不容易,与其说这是一种风格,不如说是一种对现代主义设计单一、刻板的反思和叛逆。年轻设计师挣脱现代主义几十年的统治,力图在色彩上做到丰富多彩,在设计形式上多元化、个人化。但是应该如何设计,则各人有不同的看法和态度,有些人确实是比较肤浅地玩弄形式、色彩,但也有人具有更深层次的内涵,很难一言以蔽之。

查尔斯·詹克斯设计的『灯塔』台灯(Light-House, 1984)。

罗伯特·文丘里设计的后现代主义风格陶瓷茶具。

格雷夫斯设计的陶瓷茶具。

格雷夫斯设计的各种小家具。

斯坦利·泰格曼设计的双人连体躺椅(Tête-à-Tête chairs, 1983—1984)。

格雷夫斯设计的套装水具和咖啡具。

注释

*1  原文为:To me, designing doesn't mean to give shape to a more or less stupid product for a more or less indifferent industry. For me, design is a way to discuss life, social relationships, politics, food, and even design itself.

*2  阿基米亚宣言全文:

The Alchimia Manifesto

——by Alessandro Mendini, 1985

For the Alchimia group the act itself of "drawing" is what counts today. To draw, meaning the act of making signs, is not to"design", nor to "project": it is instead a free and continuous expression of thought, made visual. A "motivated" movement.

As a group which produces drawings Alchimia interprets its task to be that of furnishing others with a proof of "sentimental thought". The motivation of the work lies not in its practical efficiency, the "beauty" of the object is in the love and magic with which it is suggested in its soul. Alchimia believes that today both man and woman live in a turbulent and unbalanced state, their lives characterised by "detail": organisational, human, industrial, political, cultural fragments...A transitional period in which they are gripped by an undefined fear resulting from the loss of many values once considered absolute. To find oneself again is essential, and Alchimia works on those values which are considered negative: on weakness, on emptiness, absence of being and depth, which today take a back seat to that which is on the surface, full, and violent, as things to be removed. If the transitory nature of these times does not allow for certainty, if even philosophy seems to have shut its doors on the future, if it is impossible to visualise general and rational transformation, then the Alchimia group concentrates on itself, seeking out details of thought, intent only in signalling its poetical vocation.

Its act of introversion, its minimal creative will, is accomplished beyond the reach of judgement.

This is Alchimia's "new morality".

Alchimia is not interested in disciplines when these are considered according to their own rules. It is more important to explore those great empty spaces between them.

For Alchimia one must not set out to do sculpture, architecture, painting, applied arts, theatre, or what else. The project works ambiguously outside of itself, in a state of waste, of disciplinary, dimensional, and conceptual indifference: the project is only an exercise for drawing.

Alchimia believes that memory and tradition are important.But the new drawing is free from rhetorical ghosts, frozen and decanted by Alchimia in a formal and kaleidoscopic style.

Alchimia believes in despecialisation: "confused" methods of creation and production can live side by side; crafts, industry, informatics, new and obsolete techniques and materials.