The Paris Traveler

Tord Boontje

by Kim on February 8th, 2008

No, the title isn’t a result of having my fingers misplaced on my keyboard wanting to type Yyptf Nppmyro instead, which of course is something I would do.  Tord Boontje is an amazing designer whose work I have fallen in love with. I have wanted to share him with you and found a way to link him to France.  Actually, he is going to tell you about that. The work I go through to get some of these posts just the way I want is insanity.  But I love it. Take a look at the video and then we’ll talk.  

So, isn’t he fantastic?!?  His work is so delicate and other-worldly.

 Like this light fixture.  What does it remind you of?  When I first looked at it, I thought of a soggy wing.  Beautiful, but a little wet. Or an angel who errs on the side of being too human perhaps.  Well, the name of the piece is Ikarus, which in Greek mythology, is the story of a boy named Icarus who had to fight a big Mineotaur and needed wings to do this.  His dad made him a pair with feathers and wax and warned the young lad not to fly to close to the sun or the wax would melt and…..well I bet you know what’s coming. Icarus didn’t listen, got a bit carried away with himself and the whole flying thing and melted his wings.  Hence, this creation.  I like it even better now that I know the whole story.

Then there is the “green” Tord Boontje who takes old wine bottles and creates all the beautiful sculptural shapes you see in this photo.  It is his way of, “showing a positive attitude toward the environment”.   There is no mythological story to go along with these but if Dionysus was an altruistic god of wine, he would have had a studio back in the old days.  I don’t think Mount Olympus worked that way.   And if any of you happened to be shopping at Target here in the States over the holidays,  you would have seen a whole line of Tord Boontje in the housewares section.  He had plates, cups, stemware and this fun candlabra available for all to enjoy.  As with all his work, they were fun, quirky, really true to his northern European background.  I hope he does another collection for them.

This is an installation he did for the Swarovski Gallery, called Winter Wonderland.   I want to fall asleep and have visions of this dancing through my head.

 So good people, I send you on your way to shop for Tord Boontje goodies, go to his website for even more information about him or brush up on your knowledge of  Greek gods.  

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POSTED IN: Art & Art Galleries