Rotations
25 March - 28 April 2004
THE EXHIBITION INCLUDES WORK BY
Ron Arad
Tom Dixon
James Dyson
El Ultimo Grito
Tal Gur
Inflate
Emanuelle Jaques
Karim Rashid
Will Smith
Dennis Snatachiara
Rainer Spehl
One Foot Taller
Yuko Tsurumaru
Tom Vaughn and
Robin Wyatt
Michael Young
Rotational moulding is the process of forming material in a closed-shell custom constructed mould. The mould is turned in a tumbling action until the material adheres and coats the inner surface, creating a well-defined container. Be it plastic or chocolate the products are distinct hollow forms with a tendency to curved surfaces, like water tanks, roadside grit salt bins, floating marker buoys and Easter bunnies. Rotational moulding is attributed to Dutch chocolate makers from the 20s’ of the last century.
The great thing about rotational moulded plastic products is that they require relatively low cost tooling, allowing for more experimentation at much lower costs, lower then those of blow moulding and injection moulding tools and easier to make then the traditional fiberglass moulds.
Rotation moulding offers an affordable entry point into the world of production. There is a price of longer fabrication and longer cooling time. It’s also a technique that doesn’t fare particularly well with flat surfaces or intricate details, and has been little used in domestic environments due to its perceived low-resolution nature.
But time and again someone rediscovers this process, often young designers with a keen sense of production venturing into small batch technology, but also leading designers innovating more freely due to the attractive low production costs. Then the same low-resolution characteristics serve to inspire these designers in their work, and bring them to the discovery of new qualities.
Forming a material into a shape of service, as do assembling parts into a whole and carving material to define a form, demands an interaction with the production process. This interaction, which is one of the lifelines of design creativity, is often conducted through rethinking of tools and experimentation with tooling.
The collection for this exhibition includes some of the inventive contributions to new typologies, new contexts of use or interventions into production techniques.
The names of the designers displayed on the custom fabricated resin eggs, were produced especially as by the little rotational moulding machine exhibited in the show.
Curator: Daniel Charny
Gallery Director: Zeev Aram
