DESIGN REVIEW : Center Exhibits Preview of Tomorrow

The annual design show and symposium Westweek has come and gone, but two engaging exhibits remain, one exploring the characteristics of materials and the other the now and future look of products.

And while Westweek is for the design trade only, happily the exhibits at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood are open and free to the public. Both are on display through April 28.

At the center’s Murray Feldman Gallery is “Mondo Materialis,” which overcomes the gallery’s awkward design and lack of wall space to present 126 panels from around the world celebrating materials in a melange of forms and finishes.

The panels were submitted by select architects, designers and manufacturers, who were asked by curators Jeffrey Osborne and George Beylerian to “think of materials you find vital and fresh . . . which you believe will be important in your work for the next five years.”

As could be expected, the 29 1/2-inch square panels are as varied as their fabricators. Presented are environmental and aesthetic issues, the essence of some materials, be they natural or artificial, the effects of new technology and a smattering of philosophical reflections, and some whimsy.

These include a hand outlined in blue against an aggregate stone submitted by Roger Tallon of Paris, with the comment “we have already in our hands the materials of the future.” In contrast is an industrious collage of building materials forming a house offered by Michael McKinnell of Boston.

The firm of nob+non of New York sent in a panel of cracked earth, on which is pinned the statement: “The concept of ‘earth’ represents a universal material which contains sensibility, integrity, harmony, essence.”

From Moscow, Viadislav Kirpichav submitted a constructivist exercise of steel, copper, brass, marble, oak, rosewood and other assorted materials, accompanied by a statement that declared “the discovery of the sense of forms is only through the way of materials.”

There also is the obligatory recycling of aluminum cans into the form of an American flag, by Michael McDonough of New York; the studied juxtaposition of assorted materials by, among others, Eric Rosenberg of New York, Fumio Shimizu of Tokyo and Andree Putman of Paris, and the whimsy of Francesco Binfare of Milan. His panel consists of a canvas pierced by two horns, under which is the statement “The monster and the canvas.” So much for the subtle artist within each designer.

Accompanying a simple panel of squares of, among other things, etched pewter, cherry wood and a sandblasted mirror, submitted by Richard Penney, Erica Pritchard and Frank Young of New York, is the statement “materials are the palette of our ideas.” The phrase very much captures the spirit of the exhibit. So does the distinctive two column post-and-lintel gateway into the gallery designed by artist Guy Dill of Venice.

More market-oriented is the exhibit entitled “On the Edge”--in the lobby of the center’s green building--featuring select products crafted by Southern California industrial designers.

Organized by the Los Angeles chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America and sponsored by the Artmedie light fixture company, the exhibit is an impressive display of about 100 products. They range from a sleek selection of Vivitar binoculars designed by Steven Shull and a Spectrophotometer blood analyzer by Hauser Associates to a miniature electric car by the General Motors Advanced Concepts Center and yet another inventive lamp by Ron Rezak.

Striking also is the look of the Corona Garden tools, by a team of Corona and Designworks; the Hammer Quilt Process by Walt Disney Imagineering and Automagic Control; the Bow lamp by Bob Olodorf, and the cordless telephone and answering machine by Point’s David Sharbaugh. Here we have the essence of design: form growing out of function, with style.

Very much “on the edge” are some of the 25 entries designed by students at California State at Long Beach and Northridge, and, most of all, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. These include futuristic bicycles, a folding scooter and a remote controlled, roving video camera. All exude imagination and style.

The Murray Feldman Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, from noon to 6 p.m., and the design center lobby, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.