DESIGN MIAMI 2011
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2011
DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2011
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2011
Now a ten year tradition, the Humanscale Faces in the Wild charity event invites artists and designers to submit a depiction of any non-domesticated animal, auctioned off to benefit the World Wildlife Fund. Increasingly more design focused as the bar keeps getting raised, this year's contributors include Marcel Wanders, Yves Behar, Scott Wilson, and Scott Henderson, among others.
Scott Henderson sent us a sneak peak of his submission, Megatera, depicting a Humpback Whale diving below the surface in the deep ocean. The whale was machined into a 16" tall block of solid acrylic in both postive and negative volumes. This gives the illusion of the whale as a single piece, as both volumes connect seamlessly at the waterline. Henderson has been a long time contributor to the event, and talked with us about the ideas behind this year's choice of Megaptera novaeangliae, humpback whale:
I love this event because it's awesome to be able to use your skills to help the environment, especially this year, as we have seen incredible damage being done to marine life, which is why I chose the diving whale form. Man only sees the whale's tail from his perspective above the water, and can't appreciate the colossal size of these mammals hidden below the waves. The heavy block of acrylic was a perfect way to show that.
Megatera and other sculptures, photographs, paintings and drawings will be auctioned off at Humanscale's showroom on October 7th, but pre-auctioned online ahead of time, so stay tuned.
Comments
Is it me or is it a little ironic and ignorant that a somebody would create a big block of hideous plastic as an item to help raise money for World Wildlife Fund to helping animals which are endangered due to the adverse effects man has on them and their environment. Lets note the plastic islands now covering mass areas of ocean and the oil spills and drilling for oil which are destroying large sensitive ecosystems around the globe, also with the now knock on effects and particles getting into the food chain at bottom feeder level such as plankton (and what do what do whales eat??). For me this submission by Scott Henderson shows a lack of real interest in helping the cause other than that of self indulgent, arrogant attitude to getting exposure for his 'brand' and giving himself a pat on the back for doing a good thing. If he really cared and wanted to make a change maybe in hindsight a large block polymethyl methacrylate isn't the best choice to help raise awareness for the reducing number of sea animals due to the greed and arrogance of mankind.
Ok, maybe i'm a little harsh and he does mean well but next time THINK about the consequences of your actions before creating more crap which could inadvertently join the swelling mess of plastic in the ocean. We should be making steps to reduce our reliance on plastics, this product would have been much better if he'd gone out to the plastic island and created an ornament out of that.
hopefully the other submissions have faired better than the ability to cut a whale shape in some resin and call it thought provoking design.
Quote "The heavy block of acrylic was a perfect way to show that."...............really???? I think not Scott.
Chris - that is a little harsh. Scott is not creating a new line of whale plastic bags for the auction. Just a single piece of mindful art made out of plastic to remind us of the sea life beauty.
The plastic islands is the result of the short lifespan of most consumer products (e.g. bring groceries home, then immediately trash the plastic bags and bulky packaging). I hope that Scott's piece lasts for much longer.
FOOX is everywhere these days. This is the first time I have seen his art in this Humanscale WWF Charity event but welcome the new inclusion. FOOX rocks and his paintings are stories of immersive meaning and adventure as well as occult leanings and astrological nonsense. Love it. Samantha Levinson