Delightfully Different: Nendo’s First Museum Retrospective to Open

Six years ago, a perplexing anomaly sat on display in New York City’s Museum of Art and Design (aka MAD). The object, a wood chair, appeared to be solid at the top, but the legs faded into nothingness as if they were dematerializing right before our eyes. This oddity was no physics experiment gone awry, but the brilliant and whimsical work of Nendo. While MAD presented this piece (called Fadeout Chair) and a handful of others by the Japanese design studio as a solo exhibition, an upcoming show at Design Museum Holon promises to deliver Nendo’s first large-scale retrospective. Titled “The Space in Between,” the show will fan out both inside the institution and on the museum grounds.

From top: Sato sketched a variety of chocolate truffle shapes for Chocolatexture, a candy product made under the studio’s own label by | n. The resulting pieces of Chocolatexture. Photo by Akihiro Yoshida.

Founded by architecturally trained Oki Sato, Nendo has become a household — even sought-after — name in design, reportedly working on 400 projects in 2015 ranging from minute objects and branding to built environments. Yet instead of burning out or losing originality, Sato has claimed that the volume and momentum keep the creativity flame burning. The proof is in the pudding — or, we should say, chocolates, furnishings, umbrellas and other objects that will be on display in “The Space in Between.”

From left: Thin Black Lines Chair 1, Table and Chair 2. Photography by Masayuki Hayashi.

From left: Thin Black Lines Mirror, Vases and Lamps. Photography by Masayuki Hayashi.

“This presentation investigates the only space in which Sato could not intervene, the space in between but on which he actually powerfully does,” commented the show’s curator, Maria Cristina Didero. “What is in-between, what is un-design and the carefully calculated operative area left to light and air. The theme became a narrative expedient to tell the story of his unique career.”

From left: A sketch of the Cabbage Chair and the resulting models. Photography by Masayuki Hayashi.

The exhibition’s 74 works illustrate six different categories of “spaces in between.” Between Processes, for instance, demonstrates how Nendo has turned the manufacturing process on its head or side or has dismantled the process and put parts of it back together in a fresh new way. Take the Cabbage Chair: In 2008, fashion designer Issey Miyake challenged Nendo to make furniture out of the pleated paper that is considered waste-product from manufacturing pleated fabric. The studio simply cinched and taped around the “waist” of the roll, then cut vertically on one end before being peeled open into layers.

From left: The sketch and final model of the Fadeout Chair. Photography by Masayuki Hayashi.

Meanwhile, Between Textures looks at the characteristics of differing materials and then closes the gap (or blurs the line) between them. The previously exhibited Fadeout Chair is a prime example, juxtaposing a wood seat and back with clear acrylic legs. For this special MAD commission, craftsmen painted faux woodgrain onto the acrylic components and made it appear as if gradually fading away — a frighteningly realistic illusion. The other sections of the show include Between Boundaries, TheObject, Relationships and Senses.

From left: Deep Sea Shelf and Soft Tables for Glas Italia. Photos by Hiroki Iwasaki (left) and Kenichi Sonehara (right).

“The Space in Between” will run at Design Museum Holon (just south of Tel Aviv) from June 8 to October 30, 2016.

From left: A sketch outlining Rain Bottle (also shown at top), which was a concept created for a Maison et Objet Paris trend exhibition centered around words; Nendo played on the word “rain” because of its many nuances in the Japanese language. The resulting objects were acrylic bottles containing 20 different kinds of rain as classified in Japanese culture. Photography by Hiroshi Iwasaki.

The Stay-brella for by | n has a handle that doubles as its own stand, hanger or grip when propping up against a wall. Photography by Akihiro Yoshida.