Freshly picked from Toronto
Last week we went to the Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2015 to actively support both Canadian and U.S. design. And, while setting up the five U.S. boxes for the Outside the Box initiative and preparing the PechaKucha night, the WantedDesign team ran around the city of Toronto to discover and being inspired by installations, objects, and architectures all made in Canada. Here’s our selection. More.
Gladstone, CUTMR installation || In A Space
Gladstone, CUTMR installation || Lizzy Aston
The exhibition, curated by Jaclyn Blumas, Robert Cram and Caitlin Plewes, features the work of: Bruno Billio, Miles Ingrassia and Iris Karuna; Mutt Kaw; Corinne Thiessen and Michael Trommer; TextTiles; Noah Scheinman and Mary Soroka; DTAH; Carla Porier; Menalon; Time & Desire; Fareena Chanda; Jesse Hasko; Steve Reaume; Oliver Pauk & Michael Vickers; Museum of Temp Art: Michael Poulton; Ryerson IMA Gallery; Phil Irish; Meaghan Hyckie; Annie Tung; Lizz Aston; Dayna Gedney and Joe Baumann; Alula; and Lindsay Montgomery.
Anderssen & Voll is Norway’s most important and internationally recognized contemporary design firm. Formally two parts of design collective Norway Says, Anderssen & Voll opened their office in 2009 and have since designed for some of the most important design institutions in the world including sofa designs for Erik Jorgensen and Muuto, lighting for Foscarini, bar stools for Magis, and tables for Hay, their designs have gone beyond Nordic companies and set root all over the world. Along with this retrospective Mjolk launched a collection of objects designed by Anderssen & Voll and produced by local craftspeople in Toronto. The theme of this year collection follows ritual and indoor gardening.
Design Exchange || Monogram Dinner by Design || installation by UUfie
Design Exchange || Politics of Fashion | Fashion of Politics
Guest curated by international fashion icon Jeanne Beker with DX curator Sara Nickleson, explores how fashion is a mirror of society by highlighting how clothing has been used as a tool for communicating identity and political expression. For decades, fearless and passionate designers have used this discipline as a tool to express their own ideologies and create wardrobes for like-minded people.
#ffffff || Bettie Cott
As designers know well, there is no such thing as a singular white. There are many whites. Cloud white, snow white, ivory white, ultra white, dune white, moonlight white, winter white, chalk white, antique white, timid white, to name only a few within the Benjamin Moore paint collection. In paper, plaster, and textiles, the diversity of white only multiplies. The colour white also changes over time and under environmental conditions, rendering one white whiter than another of the same ilk. ‘White Out’ is an exhibition that explores the colour white.
OCAD Tables Chairs & Other Unrelated Objects
SMASH ||Shannon Gerard, Kalpna Patel, Alison Judd
Smash was converted into a botanical garden winter haven with an installation by master crafter Shannon Gerard.
Villa Villa is a new design collaboration between designer Vanessa Jackson and artist Tony Romano. Villa Villa’s approach to design is one that considers its products as functional and as art objects. Their minimal designs focus on shape, colour and line creating simple objects for domestic interiors.
For over a decade Brothers Dressler have been producing furniture, lighting and other projects in Toronto’s west end. With a Focus on responsibly sourced materials and repurposed objects combined with a high level of craftsmanship, their works can be found in residential homes as well as commercial projects around the world. See the operation in motion, have a look at their history surrounded by their collection of found objects and woods ready to be made into new creations. Meet the makers and glimpse the process, from idea to production to finished product. There will be steam bending demonstrations and on display will be prototypes and works-in-progress along with new works and catalogue pieces. Located in the Junction Triangle linking the Dundas West/Gladstone area with The Junction, it’s a worthwhile journey to one of the last areas of industrial manufacturing in the city.
1/16 showcases new work from the graduating class of Sheridan College’s Furniture Craft and Design program, and is programmed as part of the Toronto Design Offsite Festival. The exhibition highlights 16 individual furniture designers who have developed together over the course of a 3-year design program; and who are now diverging, 1 by 1, as emerging craftspeople. The exhibition positions their work as talented individuals within the context of the renowned craft and design tradition at Sheridan.