Designer Hella Jongerius will exhibit a collection of handmade, artificial flowers at Galerie Kreo in Paris next week.

The flowers are made of glass, leather, wood and paper, and displayed in vases made of mixed materials, including ceramic, resin, wood, fabric and blown glass.

The collection includes four limited edition vase designs.

Called Hella Jongerius - Natura Design Magistra, the exhibition opens on Saturday and continues until 30 May.

Photographs © Morgane Le Gall, courtesy Galerie Kreo.

Here's some text from Galerie Kreo, written by Louise Schouwenberg:

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Hella Jongerius
natura design magistra

Hella Jongerius celebrates the sculptural quality of design in her latest products, artificial flowers and animal tables, which will be shown in Gallery kreo in Paris, April 2009.

Jongerius has become known for the way she explores the possibilities and boundaries of both handicraft and industrial techniques and subsequently stretches them beyond the already known. For instance, in many of her works she has succeeded in producing uniqueness within the industrial production process through an optimal exploitation of coincidences and even mistakes.

Apart from this fascination for techniques, the narrative quality of products has always played a mayor role in her work. Stories seem to hide underneath the skin of products, due to the reinterpretation of historical decorative patterns, but also due to the imaginative use of the images of flowers and animals.

While exploring the technical and narrative possibilities of designs, Jongerius never crosses the ‘natural’ boundaries of the design field.

She has taken yet another experimental step within her career: the celebration of the sculptural quality of furniture and the ‘missing link’ of her vases, flowers. A flower has become design, a table has become frog, because they were intimately engaged with the material traces of the handcrafted production process.

Exhibition:
Galerie kreo
April 4th 2009 to May 30th 2009

Opening night:
April 4th 2009 from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.

artificial vases - collection natura design magistra, 2009
designer: Hella Jongerius
Producer: Galerie kreo

Limited edition of 8 pieces + 2 a.P. + 2 Prototypes numbered & signed pieces
Description & Materials: Collection of four vases, #1 (beige base), #2 (green glass base), #3 (black ceramic base) and #4 (pink glass base); all made of a mix of different materials such as ceramic, resin, wood, fabric and blown glass.