Comments on: Telling Tales at the V&A

By: tweetertweet

tweetertweet — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:56:31 +0000

Wow that looks very cluttered. What a mess…

By: tiffany

tiffany — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:37:21 +0000

This show definitely shows the spirit of the first decade of this century. A nice show but to much decoration, too little meaning. Droog design ruled in the nineties, and the Dutch still rule this decade. Which country want’s to take over?

By: zerocharisma

zerocharisma — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:07:42 +0000

designgurunyc said;

‘The pretentiousness of it all was and is quite disgusting, and ‘though I have enjoyed much of the process of this trend, it is now officially over. We live in a different world that no longer likes to be seen to be frivolous, and I await with this retrospective the next stage of true design to surface.
I think that it was no coincidence that Li (Edelkoort) left her post at Eindhoven. She is a master of visualising the next big thing and left what was becoming repetitive (the dutch need to find a new way), and that the wave of design was about to change.’

very well put.
instead of defending this work against negativity of the now, lets say farwell and thankyou. Dutch design was at some point important. now it is over.
lets look forward. get smart and be realistic about the world and the way we live in it.

By: designgurunyc

designgurunyc — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:57:05 +0000

I have been lucky enough to be in town for this new exhibition, and as usual, the team at the V&A have hit this retrospective and the end of a trend at exactly the right time (congratulations again Gareth…).
This really has been an excessive time where design has been allowed to romp to new boundaries under the argument that everything can be reinvented and reinterpreted. Limited editions have abounded and received accolade and 6 figure sums. Students have been acting like stars. If ever we needed a sign that the eighties had returned this was it, a symbol that furniture that may never be used or sat upon or under, could be veiled as art, or worse still as poetry and collected! Please wake up, post recession world, most of this is not art. It certainly isnt poetry (though occasionally poetic), and worst of all it often isnt really furniture!
The pretentiousness of it all was and is quite disgusting, and though I have enjoyed much of the process of this trend, it is now officially over. We live in a different world that no longer likes to be seen to be frivolous, and I await with this retrospective the next stage of true design to surface.
I think that it was no coincidence that Li (Edelkoort) left her post at Eindhoven. She is a master of visualising the next big thing and left what was becoming repetitive (the dutch need to find a new way), and that the wave of design was about to change.
I however salute this show, it is almost a ‘greatest hits’ of Dutch wave design, in the way that all the big players that have made it into design books are featured, and as a long departing wave to what has been a fun if pointless decade of design.

By: lana

lana — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:24:18 +0000

nothing is invented, everything is re-invented.
this exhibition shows an amazing amalgam of styles, trends, influences and materials. is it the same to say design art?
Gareth Williams did an amazing curatorial job. i’ve seen some of these pieces maybe two years ago at the design art fair and indeed, v&a did a much better job.
this exhibition questions me really loud what is it design art, where’s the real boundary between design and art and above all does design art exists or is it different words to say the same? (food for thought: baroque and renaissance)

i’m sure we are living a huge style transformation in design and architecture, but haven’t name it. i believe we’re still under experimentation, metamorphosis…