10 Questions With… Dustin Yellin

Inside the studio—a warehouse he renovated down the street from his multidisciplinary art center Pioneer Works—Yellin relies on natural light as well as Ketra lighting by Lutron, merging the day’s fluctuating hues with shades he can tune and control. “Like a fly caught in amber, my works act as a kind of time capsule,” he says. “Instead of hosting fossils, I embed human artifacts, typically images sourced from print media, within in such a way that we, as a species, become the specimen.”   

Read Interior Design’s interview with Yellin about finding the right light and the performative aspect of his sculptures.

Interior Design: The invention of the moving image owes much to lighting. What role does light play in your idea of “frozen cinema,” in other words suspending an image to stillness? 

Dustin Yellin: Goethe once said that “architecture is frozen music.” My use of the term “frozen cinema” is an update to his idea that through pattern, plan, and frame, an artist can breathe narrative into fixed forms. Like architecture, and unlike cinema, sculpture requests the observer to experience art through a body in motion in space and time, which is never constant. In a sense, I employ two forms of scenography; one that is pictorial, while the other relies on an active viewer who becomes their own director scripting encounters with the work in real space and in real time. I find that the difference between stillness and animation is really just a matter of time.   

ID: Could you talk about your relationship with glass as a form of craft and a conceptual medium? 

DY: Glass is a paradoxical medium; it is both strong and fragile while it also attempts to show itself and hide at the same time. Duchamp once said something to the effect that the best art exhibits an ambiguity of experience that is not one thing or the other, but is both one thing, and something else at the same time. To answer in the negative, the only thing I am against conceptually in art is the dichotomy between either/or states of being.  

ID: Light, whether natural or artificial, is critical in an artist’s life in studio, one that even determines the artist’s use of the space. What is your relationship with light from conception of a work to its final form? 

DY: All vision is predicated on light, and yet we often take light for granted. Glass by its very nature does something extortionary to all forms of light: it bends it. And while painting reflects light, glass acts as both a prism and a filter that makes legible how photons move around the work and around us. As an analog, my glass works are more like sensors that allow each viewer, and myself, to build sensitivity to the nature of light itself.    

ID: Why is midday sunlight your favorite? 

DY: Midday’s lack of shadows chips away at the object-hood of glass, transforming it into something more akin to an instrument, whether that be a window, a mirror, or a prism.   

ID: Light lives through a constant shift through movement, similar to your sculptures that invite viewers to rotate around them. How do you orchestrate this sense of mobility for your audience? 

DY: My works have different edge conditions that each provide different ways and moments of seeing the work. As sculpture exists in four dimensions, the act of the observer moving around and through these different conditions allows a suit of shifting views that merge, develop, and emerge yet again out of these situations and their borders. This movement allows the work to always be in a state of “becoming.”  

ID: Exhibiting Psychogeographies in spaces associated with dance creates an interesting contrast between movement and stillness. Could you talk about your projects for Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. through this aspect? 

DY: There is an adage that the rests between notes give music its soul. Movement and stillness are already wed, just as darkness is to light. Each defines and clarifies the other; without one there cannot be the other. Jung mentioned that the human condition is one of duality, and that art is the expression par excellence of this reality.  

ID: Psychogeographies consists of paintings and sculptures. How do you see these play with dimensionality? 

DY: Since the Renaissance, Western art developed a form of painterly perspective based on foreshortening and geometry. The Modernists countered this illusion by flatlining the picture plane to assert the flatness of the canvas. Instead of seeing these two modes as antithetical, I mix both together so that the shift between each technique produces a “3rd depth”.  As my works are three dimensional objects comprised ostensibly of sets of layered picture plains, I also move along the z-axis through these plains to provide a further play of depth through the relation between classical perspective and scale in real space.  

ID: Scale is another critical element, almost similar to miniature art in which minuscule elements build a narrative altogether. Can you share a bit about your process of using small bits to form larger narratives? 

DY: Each work is a microcosm in which the individual parts never lose their own unique identity. They also work together as a community of images to produce a larger systemic image at the same time.  

ID: You create work-on-paper studies of your sculptures but also use paper bits inside the works. Could you talk about your relationship with paper?  

DY: Since the beginning of time, people have made marks to record their existence. These marks endure and circulate long after as a collection of shared experience. There are many words for this greater body of knowledge, be it consciousness or culture. In a sense, I feel that I tap into this long conversation by sourcing other people’s marks, and then reconfiguring these items with mark-making of my own. By preserving these histories in glass, I can sustain that long conversation.  

ID: Pioneer Works is a space that proves the multimedia direction art-making has evolved into in recent years. Many artists and designers refuse categorization of their practices. How do you see the center’s impact on your work and vice versa? 

DY: Pioneer Works is a “museum of process” in which we support the continual development of all disciplines and practices through experimentation and production. I feel that as we support others, we advance ourselves. Pioneer Works is my life practice; they are one and the same.  

Randi Renate Creates a Permanent Installation in Elizabethtown, New York

Hiking the High Peaks region in New York’s Adirondack Mountains during the pandemic lockdown, Randi Renate was struck by the enveloping cerulean sky. It inspired the artist to create blue is the atmospheric refraction I see you through, a permanent installation now on the grounds of the Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown. Among the other influences on the 14-foot-tall, spherical structure are Renate’s studies in biology and oceanography, her myriad readings on distance, subjectivity, and connection, and Bluets, Maggie Nelson’s book-length ode to the color.

Renate began the sculpture by crafting a ceramic model, and then visiting the museum to pitch it to director Aurora McCaffrey, who not only agreed to host the independent project but also helped the artist successfully apply for a community grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. Those funds were supplemented by private donations, plus an estimated 1,500 hours’ worth of work contributed by several of Renate’s artist friends.

The wood rowboats found on the region’s lakes informed the work’s plank-on-frame construction, which is built from locally sourced Adirondack white cedar. Thin strips of the same timber were stack-laminated to make handrails for a pair of curving staircases cut deep into either half of the sphere, which is finished in celestial-blue casein paint. Visitors climb the steps in unison to meet at the top of the piece. “They’re encompassed by the walls, slowly disappearing within the sculpture on the sixth or seventh step,” Renate explains. And when they reach the summit, Hurricane Mountain, the closest peak, appears on the horizon.

9 Show-Stopping Installations Seen at Milan Design Week 2022

There is a trick to quickly erecting a temporary destination that seduces the design community during Milan Design Week—and wow-factor is a must. At Alcova, the offsite exhibition which took place for the second time in an abandoned nunnery and military hospital, several installations shined, taking advantage of an abundance of space and the decayed elegance that only comes from derelict structures. In the Brera district, La Palota, a former sports venue beckoned with lofty ceilings. And why not add a famous villa to the mix? From a kitchen installation at a location of a recent crime drama to a portal of natural and semi-precious stone to a colorful sphere-filled sound studio, here are nine of our favorite installations from Milan Design Week 2022.

1.  A Statement of Form by Gaggenau

The luxurious Italian villa seen in “House of Gucci,” a recent crime drama inspired by true events directed by Ridley Scott, dominated Instagram feeds this Milan Design Week. Completed by architect Piero Portaluppi in 1935, the Villa Necchi Campiglio an estate with private garden, swimming pool, and tennis court, is the beautiful home of the Necchi family. A slice of verdant oasis in the center of Milan, it has long been a seductive and coveted party venue.

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This year, the villa hosted “A Statement of Form,” a sleek kitchen installation by kitchen manufacturer Gaggenau, in collaboration with Munich-based architecture firm 1zu33 and its founder Hendrik Müller, with contributions by marble expert Salvatori (behind a stacked marble centerpiece) and ceramic specialist Kaufmann (maker of the tiles). 

2. “Monumental Wonders,”  by SolidNature

At Alcova, nine different types (and colors) of onyx composed the dramatic entry portal to “Monumental Wonders,” presented by SolidNature. Demonstrating what is possible upon breaking the perceived boundaries of designing with natural and semi-precious stone, the installation commandeered five rooms at Alcova’s Lavanderia building and highlighted creative use beyond raw marble block—think stone dust and off-cuts—with a series of monumental commissioned pieces. 

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Architecture firm OMA, headed up by principals Ellen van Loon and Giulio Margheri, designed the stone-wrapped doorway as well as a rotating cabinet doubling as a movable wall and a bed tucking away a hidden table and storage space (both made of marble and onyx). 

A dazzling bathroom built entirely of pink onyx by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis took center stage. The 360-degree free-standing sculpture showcased an apt merger of form and function while an internal glow drew attention to the natural veins and raw beauty of the stone.

3. “Silentscape” by Isabella Del Grandi for Slalom

Within the soothing embrace of “Silentscape,” a colorful sound studio installation by Isabella Del Grandi at Alcova, the chatter of voices—and the bustle of Milan Design Week—dropped away.

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Exploring, with texture and material, the acoustical sound absorbing possibilities available from acoustic system manufacturer Slalom, Del Grandi clad walls in soft surfacing material and dangled round upholstered spheres from the ceiling—these slowly swayed as mellow music played.

4. Houses by Charlotte Macaux Perelman for Hermès

A luminous installation of ash wood and translucent colored paper houses featured items for the home from Hermès. 

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Inspired by water towers, the one-room stand-alone geometric structures glowed like lanterns at venue La Palota, a spacious former sports center benefited by sky-high ceilings and accommodating up to 1,200 people. Charlotte Macaux Perelman, the artistic director of Hermès Maison who conceived similar displays for the luxury fashion brand for previous Milan Design Weeks, was behind the design. As visitors traversed through, they discovered six new fabric designs, all made of cashmere. 

5. See the Stars Again by Flos

As a soothing voice talked about the future, Arco K, an anniversary version of the iconic Arco lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni spun around in a slow wide circle while surrounded by raw white stone and set within pristine white walls. Part of “See the Stars Again” a temporary destination conceived to highlight 14 new product launches by lighting manufacturer Flos, the eye-catching presentation offered visitors a close up look at the lamp’s lead-free crystal base, which exposes its inner mechanics. Curated by Calvi Brambilla and held at the 65,000-square-foot former factory Fabbrica Orobia, the installation also included sculptural displays, indoor gardens, and projections of animals.

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6. “Divine Inspiration” by Lee Broom

Taking centuries-old display know-how from religious places of worship, Lee Broom launched six lighting collections and 30 new products in “Divine Inspiration.” The British lighting designer’s largest initiative yet for Milan Design Week was set in a gallery, within a warren of rooms—each with its own curated lighting product display and unique mood.

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Among the limited edition hand-sculpted pieces in the Requiem collection, a seemingly beautifully and artistically broken pendant light is a showstopper. 

7. Weaving by Amine El Gotaibi for Beni Rugs

A ceiling-mounted 300-pound weaving by Moroccan artist Amine El Gotaibi set the stage for Spoken Lines, a collection of 10 rugs by Colin King for Beni Rugs unveiled at Alcova.

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Made of nearly 80 feet of natural wool, the site-specific artwork was woven in part by a cooperative of female weavers in Morocco—who weave all of the company’s rugs—and took four weeks to create. 

8. Caffè Populaire by Lambert & Fils and DWA Design Studio

Aperitivo opportunities abound during Milan Design Week, but the truly special ones take place in temporary venues built entirely for the occasion. Set on the grounds surrounding and within an indoor-outdoor temple dating back to the 1930s at Alcova, the second edition of Caffè Populaire was an aperitivo garden presented by Lambert & Fils and DWA Design Studio. Water flowed amidst sculptural lighting (from Lambert & Fils) and flowered wallpaper (by New York-based wallpaper studio Superflower) and plantings of wildflowers and grass.

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Focusing on the senses, the installation included an elevated interior garden—a central table planted with wild flowers—and a water sculpture. Throughout, the Brutalist, tower-like forms of the Silo lighting collection by Lambert & Fils juxtaposed with Florescence, a wallpaper collection by Superflower with hyperrealistic flower imagery taking cues from Japan’s Edo period Ikebana (art of flower arrangement) and 19th century Victorian patterns. 

9. “Holotype” by Refractory

The scent of turmeric wafted through the air at “Holotype,” presented by the freshly launched Chicago-based furniture brand Refractory and held in the E/Spacebuilding, a new attic and adjacent terrace location at Alcova. The spice was both heaped on the ground and sprayed on the concrete walls – tinting them orange. This unique backdrop for Refractory’s artisanal consoles, dining tables, occasional tables, benches, lighting, and objects in materials ranging from cast bronze to solid black walnut was joined by paleontological specimens and imagery of America’s West, in collaboration with Sarah Wilson, co-founder of Go-Valley, a Texas-based production company.

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RIOS Brings Superbloom to Milan Design Week

The whirlwind that is Salone del Mobile brought a newcomer to the scene in the guise of a multi-sensory presentation. RIOS, the Los Angeles-based studio staked its claim at the international celebration of design and creativity with Superbloom, an interpretation of California’s rare springtime phenomenon of wildflowers awash in the desert. Conceptually, the conceit was the very antithesis of its setting—super-industrial and often chilly gray Milan. The big idea was to bring a jolt of SoCal sunshine, nature, and frankly joy to the capital of Lombardy. 

That’s part of the why. Underlying the high-impact visuals, though, was RIOS’s primary reason for participating. “We wanted to introduce ourselves to the European market as a multi-disciplinary firm through the vehicle of a fabulous installation, especially since this was the first Salone in a couple of years.” Sebastian Salvadó, creative director and principal introduces the project as spokesman for the team also including CarloMaria Ciampoli and Simone Lapenta. Teamwork, in fact, was the name of the game. RIOS held a firm-wide competition with its internal jury selecting two proposals to be consolidated as the final project. 

The immersive experience that is Superbloom unfolds through a series of three connected spaces—a foyer, courtyard, and exhibition room—within a private building housing the Simposio Design showroom in the Porta Romana zone of Milan, not far from Fondazione Prada. According to Salvadó, incidentally visiting Milan for the first time, it’s a typical 19th-century building with an arched opening streetside transitioning to the courtyard and exhibition area beyond, all totaling 3,750 square feet. 

Named the Rain, Sprout, and Bloom rooms, the spaces sequence the course of the flowers’ growth through nature. The Rain Room, blue to indicate water, presents as an open-air passageway filled with laser-cut vinyl tubes containing beads that release a customized scent. “Salty and earthy,” says Saladó. In the distance, sunlight, as suggested by a painted yellow disk mounted on the courtyard’s 10-foot-high wall, beckons to indicate propagation or sprouting as results of the rain. Design-savvy visitors can appreciate the area seated on custom benches designed with Janus et Cie. Finally, comes the piece de resistance. Of course, it’s the Bloom Room where super-sized examples of colorful translucent plastic, fabricated in house as were all components, stand more than 6-feet tall and “are almost anthropomorphic in their intense feeling of a field of flowers.” Projected images, light play, and background music composed by RIOS designer Anthony Nitche heighten the quasi other-worldly experience. As for himself, Salvadó recounts super bloom viewings at the Anza Borrego desert. “As a kid I was always aware of my surroundings.” Chalk that up, perhaps, to his father, a scientist combining geophysics, astrophysics, biology, and mathematics disciplines “to see how the planet works.”

In nature, super blooms are ephemeral, lasting only a few weeks. Their design interpretation here is a bit less fleeting. Superbloom, on view during Milan Design Week, is being upcycled. Items from the exhibition will be donated to Ai Bi, Associazione Amici dei Bambini, a non-profit fighting childhood neglect in Italy and internationally while also supporting Ukrainian mothers and children in Italy. 

14 Young Designer Highlights from the SaloneSatellite in Milan

Without a platform to showcase their work and forced to learn remotely, young designers suffered during the global pandemic. At exhibition center Fiera Milano last week, SaloneSatellite, Salone del Mobile’s celebration of rising stars under 35 returned—to long awaited relief. With the theme Designing for our Future Selves and a focus on sustainability, the 23rd edition featured 600 participants. Once again, the SaloneSatellite Awards program singled out a talented few. 

From furniture that dignifies walking difficulties to attractive new use for old tires and a foam-free upholstered furnishing collection, here are 14 of our favorite finds.

1. RemX by Lani Adeoye

A physical difference shouldn’t mean a loss of dignity. So thought SaloneSatellite 2022 first prize winner Lani Adeoye. Her RemX walker is inspired by one employed by her tribe in Nigeria, the Adeoye people, and made of easily found local materials.

2. Lamp by Studio Gilles Werbrouck and Hugues Loinard Studio

Magnetic tape, crochet fabric, and plaster is behind the unique finish of Lamp, the second prize winner by Studio Gilles Werbrouck in collaboration with Hugues Loinard Studio featured in “Belgium is Design.”

The lamp’s imprecise production process—white plaster is poured on black magnetic tape crochet fabric and then welded—makes each piece unique.

3. Meenghe by Djurdja Garčević of Young Balkan Designers

Scooping up third prize is Djurdja Garčević, a participant in the group show “Young Balkan Designers,” with the furniture collection Meenghe made of recycled tire shavings. In addition to the stool shown here, flowerpots, garbage containers and more can be made with the shredded substance, which eliminates the consumption of a raw material.

4. Max +1,5 Celsius by Atelier Ferraro

Reclaimed kitchen cabinet doors are transformed into Max +1,5 Celsius, a sunny yellow lounge chair by Atelier Ferraro, which garnered a Special Mention. With the addition of locally sourced wood, Max +1,5 Celsius finds new life for discarded particle boards, and can also be configured as a children’s chair, coffee table, sofa, or chaise lounge.

5. Ease by Rasmus Palmgren

A second Special Mention went to a stackable chair made of beechwood native to Finland. Designed by Rasmus Palmgren, the Ease Chair has a thin sheet-like backrest supported by a hardy frame.

6. Chochin by Shinnosuke Harada

With flat-pack capability, the multi-function Chochin, part of the Morito collection by Shinnosuke Harada, serves as lamp, stool, and table.

7. Elements of Colour by Michelle Müller with Maestro Peter Kuchinke and Torsten Rötzsch

Exploration with metal oxides drew out the unique color fade in Elements of Colour, a collection of gradient glassware by Michelle Müller with glassmakers Maestro Peter Kuchinke and Torsten Rötzsch.

8. Infinity by Felicia Arvid

What if you could eliminate the foam in upholstered furniture? Analyzing how fabric folds, Felicia Arvid conceived the Infinity furniture collection, composed of a bench, chair, lounge chair, pouf, and room divider. The collection is constructed from just two materials—fabric and steel.

9. Elements of Light by AATISMO

Glowing like moonlight in a pool, the Water lamp, part of the Elements of Light series by AATISMO, is made of recycled glass.

10. Disversa by Maria Chiara Sgarbi, Noemi Mateus, and Julia Drost

The transformable Disversa by Maria Chiara Sgarbi, Noemi Mateus, and Julia Drost, featured in the exhibition “Stuck: Smash Social Ceilings,” converts into a conference area with table and two benches serving four people. Wheels add to its flexibility.

11. Biocarpet by Arpad Pulai of Young Balkan Designers

A nod to biomimicry, Biocarpet, a nubby floor covering featured in “Young Balkan Designers,” reveals designer Arpad Pulai’s experimentation with non-woven structural surfaces.

12. Waiting by Amorce Studio

The metal and glass modular Waiting shelf by Amorces Studio reminds us of the colorful scribbles of childhood.

13. Corpus by Adriana Schmitt

Corpus, a wood and tubular steel chair by Adriana Schmitt, is too big, too wide and too high, or so says the designer. A statement against what is considered ‘average,’ the chair is dedicated to the unique features of a women’s body—and not that of an average man.

14. Landscape by Margaux de Penfentenyo

Margaux de Penfentenyo hand-painted Douglas fir to create the Landscape Lamp, a tribute to the many layers and hues of the geological strata of the earth.

Yuko Nishikawa Creates 200 Whimsical Mobiles for an Installation in Brooklyn

Marketing activations come in all shapes and sizes nowadays. Witness Memory Functions, Yuko Nishikawa’s immersive installation commissioned by the Brooklyn Home Company for the Butler Collection, the firm’s latest residential development in Park Slope with 41 condominium units for sale. More than 200 delicate mobiles crafted from paper-pulp waste hang throughout a model apartment, the colors shifting from space to space—varying whites in the living room, happy hues in the primary bedroom. “It’s exciting to display in an environment that will hold and witness living. I like to make work that accompanies ordinary, everyday moments,” says Nishikawa, who dabbled in interiors for Clodagh and Alexandra Champalimaud before launching her eponymous art-and-object studio in 2018. When the Butler installation comes down this month, some mobiles will travel to Heron Arts in San Francisco for Nishikawa’s group show opening July 9; the remainder will be broken down and recycled at her East Williamsburg studio.

California Artist Robert Irwin Transforms a 1960’s Power Plant in Berlin into a Visual Feast

After gaining success as an abstract painter, California artist Robert Irwin famously abandoned studio-based work in 1970. He has spent the subsequent decades creating installations that make innovative use of light to attune the perception of architectural space. Last winter, Light Art Space, a foundation in Berlin that commissions works involving luminosity, mounted Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin), the largest installation the now 93-year-old Irwin has created in Europe. His chosen site was the turbine hall of a decommissioned 1960’s power plant formerly serving East Berlin. Irwin transformed the soaring 88,000-square-foot hall, which is flanked by colonnades of concrete pillars and elevated metal catwalks, by inserting a 52-foot-square plasterboard partition two-thirds of the way down its 315-foot length.

Nearly 60 installers from six different companies worked for a month to erect the partition, each side of which was festooned with 240 fluorescent tubes in a non-repeating geometric pattern—white on the front, blue on the back. (The structure incorporated 1 1/2 miles of electrical cables.) According to Irwin, any part of the space altered by the emitted light became a part of the work. “The installation—monumental, freestanding, bold—matched the gravity and moment of the vast space,” LAS head of programs Amira Gad notes. To engage younger viewers, the foundation collaborated with educational consultant Ephra on children’s programming, which included having them lie on the floor in front of Irwin’s installation and color posters printed with the gridded pattern.

Tomo Design Creates an Ethereal Sales Office in China

When Tomo Design was selected to design a property sales office for the Chinese real estate giant Sunac, they knew a conventional office would not be enough. “Customers want novel, superb, unknown experiences,” said founder Uno Chan. “We customized a variable selling and experiential space, that creates a spiritual realm beyond the physical one.” They called it “Art Beyond Mansion.”

That spiritual, ethereal quality is exemplified by a UFO-like installation of mirror stainless steel in the entry lobby. It hovers above a sandboard table where property models can be displayed. Nearly everything, from furniture in the lounge areas scattered throughout to whimsical robot sculptures, is custom. 

For all its extravagant touches, the designers never lost sight of the business function of the sales center. Relaxation areas and even a gift shop are multi-functional spaces that can also serve as places for meetings and conversation. Tomo Design also had to let go of some ideas due to budget constraints. But in the end, they delivered a forward-looking artistic environment that transcends its purpose as an office.