Plucking the romantic flower?
10 years prior to founding the Memphis movement and becoming internationally renowned, Ettore Sottsass experienced a rocky romance with Eulàlia Grau, an artist from Barcelona who was living in Milan. His fiancé’s last goodbye gave birth to a vase/monument to this lost love that the creator, caught on Indian culture, dedicated to Shiva. Initially in pale rose, the masterpiece was re-edited using a golden finish with the creator’s approval.
Sex-traordinary objects !
In 2003, the center of research on the world fire-born arts « Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Feu et de la Terre (CRAFT) » invited Pierre Charpin to think about ceramic painting. The designers came up with a series whose theme plays hide and seek. Depending on the angle at which the pieces are viewed, the crocks will display to inquisitive eyes either the striking spectacle of shapes in vivid colors or reveal erotic skits mocking the Greek potteries of ancient times.
Collection Ceram X/ Pierre Charpin 2003
The great thrill
For the exhibition « Kama, Sex & Design », during theTrienanale di Milano in 2013, the Milan design museum asked to 8 designers to come up with pieces revolving around the notion of Eros – Eroticism in ancient Greek -. Oki Sato, the founder of the design studio Nendo, presented a series of silicone-covered bowl whose fine skin thrilled and shook under the wind procured by a fan placed at their sides. The feeling of desire thereby created is such that onlookers can do all but touch it….
Shivering Bowls/ Nendo 2013
Breast-taking
The breast bowl or tit cup was created for a royal commission and was used by Marie-Antoinette , the spouse of French King Louis XVI , to drink milk. As if it wasn’t extravagant enough, it was said that the bowl shape was molded from the Queen’s own breast; however this is only a legendary tale. Made in soft-paste porcelain, in order to enhance its flesh-like feel, this legendary object can now be seen at the Musée national de la céramique de Sèvres (French national museum of ceramic). It has been an inspiration to designer Piergil Fourquié for the making of Nippy, a sensual glass dome that was Designerbox#23 object.
Teat Cup Jatte téton, 1987.
Electrifying chairs
Edited by Casamania, the Him & Her chairs signed by designer Fabio Novembre boldly and sensually revisit the mythical chairs by Verner Panton ! Welcoming back ends, the feminine and masculine versions were cast in molds in plasters that had been molded from actual models. The two Genesis-inspired industrialized sculptures offer a proper seating in modern settings.
Chaises Her & Him/ Fabio Novembre 2008