과거와 현재가 뒤섞입니다. 어울리지 않게, 낯설게 매치됩니다. 그 낯설음을 통해 진실을 찾습니다. 그 깊이는 아직 모르겠지만, 감각적인 색감과 형상은 놀랐습니다.
Organized by the Museum of Art & Design (MAD) in New York, Studio Job MAD HOUSE is the first American solo exhibition of Studio Job, designers Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel’s Antwerp & Amsterdam-based atelier. Taking up two floors of the Museum, the design duo have delved into their studio’s 16 year history to populate the spaces with a wide selection of their work ranging from sculpture and drawings to furniture and lamps. Characterized by rich ornamentation, exquisite materials and exacting hand-craftsmanship, and laden with cultural and historical references, the exhibition feels like a fictional art patron’s eclectic collection which, despite its flamboyance, doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Modeled on the paradigm of an Old Master artist studio and inspired by the decorative arts of the 15th to 18th centuries, the studio’s works are comprised of a wide range of media like bronze casting, gilding, marquetry, stained glass and tin-glazed pottery. By using such traditional applied-art practices both in unexpected combinations and for unconventional forms, Studio Job has developed a highly distinctive body of work characterized by opulence, provocation and humor. Smeets calls their style “New Gothic” and defines it as antithetical to modern designers’ obsession with minimalism which he considers “the worst kitsch you can get”. Their work, predominantly produced in limited edition pieces—neither succumbing to the mass production demands of modern design, nor disavowing their product design nature for one-off pieces—intentionally defies the modernist mantra of “form follows function”, instead preferring decorative excess, visual turmoil and elaborate symbolism thereby blurring the lines between fine art and design.
The designers’ emotional rather than utilitarian approach to design is also apparent in the exhibition’s set up. Eschewing chronological order, they have arranged their work in fluid, sometimes contradictory groupings around themes such as ‘love/lust,’ ‘agrarian/preindustrial’, and ‘church/religion’ that suggest narratives the visitors can pick upon to construct their own interpretations. Furthermore, by covering the floors and walls throughout the spaces in their own designs—weathered oak parquet harking back to the residences of the haute bourgeoisie and a wallpaper inspired by typical castle interiors—they have managed to conceptually transform the galleries into the private treasure chambers of a fantastical collector of yore.
