In yesterday's post we mentioned an antique 19th century L.T. Piver product sample album with over 220 illustrations of perfume bottles and other assorted cosmetic products in the context of materials.
Some may argue that glass perfume bottles aren't that easy to upcycle, but Belgian artist and designer Diederik Schneemann may dissent.
A while back, he started indeed a series entitled "Cherished" that included his "Essence Chandelier", a design made with a myriad of upcycled perfume bottles (there is also a coloured glass bottles version of this piece).
The principle behind this piece and behind other designs by Schneemann is not just an obsession with multiplication, but a passion for collections (hence the title of this series of pieces - "Cherished"). While looking for unusual materials, the designer stumbled upon discarded and unique collections and immediately fell in love with them.
Rather than as useless relics of our consumerist world or items accumulated by a serial hoarder, Schneemann started seeing these collections as personal treasures, and therefore as more precious than marble or bronze and more valuable than actual design pieces as they evoke memories and feelings. Besides, the person who collected them invested money, time, passion and dedication to find, buy and collect the objects in question.
Collections inspired Schneemann Ming Dynasty vases made from hundreds of Smurfs or toys from McDonald's Happy Meals.
The Smurfs and toys, one different from the other, form a chaotic and irregular yet irresistibly colourful three-dimensional surface on the vases.
But, in other cases, like his matchbox cabinets and clock, the designer used several version of the same material and first created small aggregates to find the perfect balance and then build a structure with these materials.
The matchbox cabinets and clocks are built with over 10,000 matchboxes acquired from all over the world, from holiday retreats to hotels in Japan, and from different decades, from the early '50s to the '90s.
Schneemann is also interested in the narratives he can create through his designs: his vases made from discarded, discoloured and torn flip flops tell stories about waste polluting the oceans and then getting washed up on the shores of Africa. So, rather than an artist or designer, Schneemann works like a curator and a narrator. A few years ago rubbish also inspired the designer a project in collaboration with photographer Aldwin van Krimpen - "Rubdish", a conceptual visualization of waste finding its way back onto our plate to comment about the risks of pollution.
Examples included appetizing-looking yet actually disgusting cakes and pastries made from waste ingredients found in a wide range of locations, from a demolition site of an old school, a harbor and a highway in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The designer created a new piece for his "Cherished" collection - The Dutch Masters cupboard. This new piece incorporating 55 oil paintings painted by Dutch artists will be unveiled during Milan Design Week (18th - 23rd April) at the Rossana Orlandi Gallery.
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