Some designers are inextricably linked with a moment in time. Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Ray Eames helped define the mid-century modern era. The Memphis Group created the aesthetic now synonymous with the graphic style of the 1980s. Ward Bennett, a furniture designer whose career ranged from the early '60s through the late '80s is also one of those dynamic figures—albeit, one with quiet yet long-lasting influence. A designer with a fascinating background, in his heyday Bennett shared a studio with artist Louise Nevelson while also creating custom chairs for Lyndon B. Johnson; facts like this help demonstrate his atypical position within the design world.
The new exhibition Ward Bennett: Making Sense at Project No. 8's Chinatown location distills the design icon's highly original point of view regarding the relationships between material, form and feeling. A collaboration between design institutions Herman Miller and Geiger as well as Various Projects, a creative agency co-directed by married partnership Elizabeth Beer and Brian Janusiak, the exhibition celebrates Bennett's multidimensionality. The show includes original designs re-imagined by Various Projects—the traditional forms are given new life through modern color washes and surprising new material trajectories; note Bennett's classic Landmark Chair, reupholstered in an of-the-moment fluorescent orange leather. Or his originally austere Scissor Chair refurbished for the exhibit with a luxe 1970s-esque Icelandic sheepskin pelt.
Though references to past eras are present in the show, they should not be confused as a lament for the past. "We didn't want [this showcase] to be nostalgic because we felt like the pieces aren't." said Janusiak. "They're incredibly well designed, they're of the moment even if this is a design from 30 or 40 years ago. We wanted to think about it more like, 'Well, how would we do it now?'"
The pieces are displayed in an environment that not only includes books directly referencing Bennett's philosophies, but also supplementary elements chosen by Various Projects that make it feel personal; Beer and Janusiak even included a picture painted by their daughter, which feels simultaneously surreal, intimate and appropriate. Beer said that, "it's not like we wanted to put ourselves in his place, but more just intuiting kind of a fullness of the experience—that every place you look there's going to be something that's engaging". This idea of creating a 'total experience' is something continuously mentioned in relation to Bennett's life's work. The designer was once quoted saying, "I love to watch people respond to my furniture…the real compliment is to watch them, perhaps unconsciously, trace the flow of the arm with their fingers, or caress the curve of the upholstery".
Janusiak poignantly helped sum up the overall intention behind Making Sense: "Bennett at one point said the most successful thing he was able to design was a life; and that's just kind of amazing. There's nothing that characterizes all of it better."
"Ward Bennett: Making Sense" runs until May 22 at Project 8 from 12-7 daily.
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