PolyThread knitted textile pavilion, 2015-16; Designed by Jenny E. Sabin, Jenny Sabin Studio; Design Team: Martin Miller, Charles Cupples; Fabricated by Shima Seiki, Wholegarment; Engineering Design by Arup; Fabric finishing by Andrew Dahlgren; 3D seamless Whole Garment digitally knit cone elements, photoluminescent, solar active and drake yarns; twill tape; aluminum armature; Commissioned by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

all images courtesy of Cooper Hewitt 

Beauty-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial 

On view February 12, 2016 -August 21, 2016

Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial  is the fifth installment of the museum’s signature contemporary design exhibition series. With a focus on aesthetic innovation, Beauty celebrates design as a creative endeavor that engages the mind, body, and senses. Curated by Andrea Lipps, Assistant Curator, and Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Design, the exhibition features more than 250 works by 63 designers and teams from around the globe, and is organized around seven themes: extravagant, intricate, ethereal, transgressive, emergent, elemental, and transformative.

The Haas Brothers (California, USA, founded 2010): Nikolai Haas and Simon Haas with The Haas Sisters of Monkeybiz (Khayelitsha township, Cape Town, South Africa, founded 2014); Sculpture, Fartin Odeur, from the Afreaks series, 2015; Glass beads, wire, wood, mixed fiber stuffing, and cast bronze; Courtesy of R & Company, New York and The Haas Brothers, Los Angeles. Monkeybiz is a nonprofit income-generating bead project founded in 2000.

The exhibition is installed on the first and third floors of the museum and offers an immersive, multisensory experience that guides the visitor through a dramatic procession of the individual works.  With projects ranging from experimental prototypes and interactive games to fashion ensembles and architectural interventions, Beauty presents works of astonishing form and surprising function while examining the essential question: “Why beauty now?”

Trace Architecture Office (Beijing, China, founded 2009): Hua Li (Chinese, b. 1972) for Beijing Meijingtiancheng Investment Co., Ltd.; Forest Building exterior, 2015.

Brynjar Sigurðarson (Icelandic, active in Switzerland, b. 1986) for Galerie Kreo (Paris, France, founded 1999); White Side Table, from The Silent Village Collection, 2013; Ash wood, metal, Krion, ropes, nylon strings, feathers, fur, leather, printed fabrics, chains and hooks; 63.5 × 48 × 33.5 cm (25 in. × 18 7/8 in. × 13 3/16 in.)

Hans Tan (Singaporean, b. 1980); Vessel with Cover XL, from Spotted Nyonya series, 2014; Sandblasted porcelain; 25 × 19 × 19 cm (9 13/16 × 7 1/2 × 7 1/2 in.)

Ken Wong (Australian, active in United Kingdom, b. 1982) for ustwo studio (London, England, United Kingdom, founded 2004); Digital illustration, Moon, Monument Valley game, 2014.

Cooper Hewitt’s Design Triennial also presents a Beauty’s catalog, is a tactile, fluid, and provocative interpretation of the Triennial’s central themes. Designed by Kimberly Varella, founder of Content Object, the book provides unexpected points of entry and plays with the concepts of beauty by using reflective surfaces, weaving pages together with hot pink thread, and grouping rich material in pink-tinted pages in the “heart” of the book from which all else flows. Each section includes the individual designers in conversation with the curators about her or his process and interpretation of beauty’s differing forms. Punctuated by lush imagery of the individual works, the catalog is the ultimate feast for the senses.

cover of the 'Beauty' catalog

interval page of the 'Beauty' catalog

interval page of the 'Beauty' catalog

interval page of the 'Beauty' catalog

interval page of the 'Beauty' catalog

See the Beauty exhibition online.

Purchase the Beauty catalog through SHOP Cooper Hewitt.

> via cooperhewitt.org