Beauty — A Meta-Exploration
This article first appeared in the Fall 2015 Design Journal, published by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
For Cooper Hewitt’s fifth survey of contemporary design, Beauty — Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, on display February 12–August 21, 2016, Kimberly Varella designed the luscious pages of the book Beauty (December 2015), creating not just a document but an object of sensual delight. Tsao & McKown Architects crafted an extraordinary physical context for this exhibition.
These interviews explore beauty with the designers who deliver the same.
KIMBERLY VARELLA
Kimberly Varella (American, b. 1970) founded her studio Content Object in Los Angeles in 2013. She has created a rich body of work for museums and cultural clients, including Hammer Museum, Arts at MIT, Pomona College Museum of Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. She earned her MFA in art from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1999 and her BFA in printmaking and new genres from San Francisco Art Institute in 1996.
You are a graphic designer working in Los Angeles. How did you come to the field? I think some would say that Los Angeles is the land of invention — for I have certainly invented my own field. I have worked as an activist, artist, and designer for the past two decades. After CalArts, my boyfriend (now husband), his twin brother and his wife, and I (it was a family affair!) started a new publication, The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, which you could say was my very first book. That was such a pivotal moment for me where I could finally focus my entire practice and identity into one action — where my voice carried through in concept, form, theory, and aesthetics.
Why do graphic designers love making books? Why endure?
At the end of designing a book, if it’s a good one, I know this capsule will be filed in the Library of Congress, shelved in libraries, both public and private, and will live on to tell stories for generations ahead. (Plus I love working with artists, curators, historians, and editors and being a part of the process of hashing out good ideas.)
Tell us about the unusual anatomy of Beauty.
I have taken the traditional vernacular of the book and made a series of metaphors through material choices. I accentuated the spine with pink threads that dramatize the Smyth-sewing process. The “heart” of the book is combined front and back matter inserted in the center of the book. This inversion of the traditional book sequence draws attention to the “guts” of the book. The copyright page stages a momentary gush (splattering of ink) that carries on throughout the “gutter” of the book. This bloodline of content carries through the veins (pink threads) and seeps through or nourishes the “body” of the book.
We all knew the cover shouldn’t feature a particular work from the exhibition. How did the final cover design come about?
In our first meeting I presented a mood board filled with different reflective materials, distorted type treatments, and schizophrenic page layouts. I was clearly trying to come to terms with the notion of beauty myself.
What manifested was our cover. The rainbow holographic foil creates a funhouse mirror — you see a reflection of yourself that changes depending on where you are standing. The “Beauty” type treatment started with Kris Sowersby’s Domaine Display, then went through a series of laser printouts. I twisted, folded, and curved the paper to change the way the type reads, photographed the paper, and collaged it back together in Photoshop.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “beauty”?
Coming from a conceptual art background, where content far out- favors form, I am almost allergic to the word “beauty.” Post-structuralism would insist that beauty is a façade of cultural constructs used as forms of power keeping individuality in check. Likewise, the Bauhaus school taught that form should follow function and that all ornament and fluff should be eradicated.
The late David Ireland once said to me, “Your work is very beautiful . . . but beauty isn’t everything.” I probably spent too much time after that trying to uglify my work. Finally I realized that beauty is pleasure, and perhaps I need to have more fun. So happy to finally be making a book called Beauty!
What is the most beautiful place you have visited?
Every place has its beauty, even if — especially if — it’s ugly . . . because that makes it complex, and to me that is beautiful. Perhaps I have become a true Angeleno because I’m tempted to choose Los Angeles. Or maybe Detroit has not left my DNA, because that is one of the most complex cities I’ve ever lived in.
Most beautiful time of day?
I love dawn, though most of the time I don’t get to see it. I noticed a lot of the designers interviewed for Beauty chose dawn or dusk. I think it has to do with the role of the designer and the task of transformation.
[Interview by Ellen Lupton]
CALVIN TSAO & ZACK MCKOWN
National Design Award winners (Interior Design, 2009) Calvin Tsao (American, b. Hong Kong, 1952) and Zack McKown (American, b. 1952) established Tsao & McKown Architects in 1985 in New York. The studio is celebrated for thoughtful work that spans scale, type, and culture — from the Suntec City 6-million-square-foot mixed-use development master plan in Singapore, to transparent lipstick tubes for Shu Uemura. Tsao and McKown each earned a masters of architecture degree from Harvard University.
You and Zack established your architecture practice, Tsao & McKown, in 1985. What led you to pursue architecture?
Calvin Tsao: Our backgrounds are in different disciplines — Zack came from sociology and political science; I came from theater. Our common ground was an interest in people, and architecture became a means to situate them in their environments. Architecture is not an end product in itself. We approach architectural questions and solutions with a concern for the quality of our shared civilization, asking how to serve the human condition.
We recently began working with you on Beauty’s exhibition design. Tell us about your process. What do you hope to achieve with the design?
Beauty is organized into seven themes. The primary challenge is to sequence these themes and works so that the show constructs a narrative and dynamic procession.
We began by looking at the relation- ships among the themes and objects, paying attention to how the designers speak to each other both in counterpoint and/or symphony. With the particularities of each piece, we considered scale, juxtaposition, distance, and proximity to the audience.
Just as we wanted the individual and collective voices of the works to be audible, we also sought to offer the audience relationships with each piece and more contextual views.
To achieve this, we identified a strategic parti — a context and structure for the show. The concept is to create a landscape of varied platforms and volumes that float in space and meander through the museum. All objects exist within this ribbon.
Designing an exhibition for a space like the Carnegie Mansion is not without its impositions — domestically scaled rooms, ornate woodwork, separated floors (Beauty will be on the first and third floors). What are the challenges to presenting contemporary work in this context, and how can exhibition design help to resolve these?
Our design and curatorial concept also considers the historical character of the Carnegie Mansion. By congregating display volumes in the center of the spaces, we allow the exhibition to float in counterpart to the architectural envelope. The wood paneling and domestically sized spaces both contain and become part of Beauty.
To connect the first and third floors, we distribute exhibition materials in the halls, stairs, and elevators, creating sequences and bread crumbs that link the two components.
Your concept for Beauty involves subtle manipulations of space and light. How will this translate in the exhibition?
Space and light are critical to exhibition design — and architecture. Every object needs space to breathe within its collective context. Distance and light can achieve this sense of independence.
We are lucky that the windows bring ambient lighting into the galleries, but this can distract our ability to focus and cause undesirable backlighting. One virtue cannot neutralize another objective. Dimmed interior lighting, careful spotlighting, and scrim walls help balance the natural light with requirements for display.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “beauty”?
“Beauty” is not definitive. To try to define it constricts our ability to comprehend the full impact and dimension that is beauty.
Zack and I are practitioners rather than theorists. We believe that the search for meaning and answers comes from search, iteration, and practice. Beauty is infinite; it’s a pursuit that should never end. To find beauty is a revelation that you’ve captured a little bit of truth.
What is the most beautiful place you’ve visited?
Everywhere is beautiful if you look.
Most beautiful time of day?
Ditto! Every moment of the day.
[Interview by Andrea Lipps]
