Shiro Kuramata

Shiro Kuramata was born on the 29^th of November 1934 and died on the 1^st February 1991. He is known as one of Japan's most important designers of the 20th century. Kuramata was mostly famous for his use of industrial materials such as wire steel mesh and lucite to create architectural interiors and furniture.

Nara Table

The Nara Table was designed for the Memphis Group in 1983.  It is one of the objects that he designed. It is a square shaped table is it is comprised of coloured glass which is infused with white cement called ‘Star Piece’ terrazzo. This product focuses upon two of Kuramata’s passions which are the unexpected transparencies and re-appropriated materials.

Sally Table

Shiro Kuramata is also responsible to the design of the Sally Table in 1987, which was also designed for the Memphis Design Group. In order to create the tabletop of Sally, Kuramata crammed broken glass fragments, together with a neon yellow film, between two intact glass disks. This process allows one to notice his interest in material transparency.

Furthermore, Kuramata went to great lengths in order to be able to produce works of simple beauty and elegance.

When Zeev Aram staged his first exhibition of the work of designer Shiro Kuramata, Japan was still viewd as a mysterious place. It was understood, as a country of copyists and low-cost production. During that era Kuramata was a complete unknown, however the exhibition was a revelation. After the exhibition Japan in fact became known as a place that was capable of leading new ideas in relation to design.

Kuramata’s work was obviously modern in the manner that it used materials, and specifically Japanese in its simplicity and elegance. However, Kuramata was always ready to experiment. He discovered the potential of commonly-used materials as if they were valuable.

Even though he was described as a minimalist, Kuramata was also able to work with strong colour, bold forms and even decorative and figurative elements. He repeatedly found ways to explore the tension between surface and transparency and was able to reject the materiality of objects and spaces.

In relation to pure beauty, few, if any, designers are able to level, which what Kuramata managed to achieve. The objects that he managed to produce in his short career include vases made from colour-saturated pink and orange acrylic, which were able to twist function into an optical illusion. Furthermore he also produced metal mesh chairs and clocks that told time with feathers and twigs for hands.

Kuramata was able to take design to extremes. In fact, for one project he wrapped a traditional bentwood chair with wire, and set fire to it. The result that came out of this extremity was a burnt-out ghost of a chair with a metal mesh frame. In addition to product design, he also made a chair, that was wholly made out of glass, and no visible joints were used since invisible glue was used.

Furthermore, in relation to maybe the most beautiful of all the things he produced is the Miss Blanche chair that he made in 1988. This chair can be described as a minimal chair composed of a seat and a back that are made of clear acrylic. The product is supported by anodised aluminium legs. However, while producing the chair a lot of effort had to be made. To manufacture the chair, Kuramata’s team of craftsmen made a mould for the liquid, and in that  way they could transform it into a usable solid sheet. The process involved working by trial and error, and  Kuramata’s team found a method of pouring acrylic to half the depth of the mould, putting in the flowers, and then waited eight hours for the acrylic to harden, and finally then they poured in the rest to the top of the mould.

At the original exhibition of this work Kuramata and his craftsman came to London to supervise the installation. The pieces on show including Kuramata’s flowing white cabinets, and his glass chairs, belong to Aram’s personal collection.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia. Shiro Kurumata. [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiro_Kuramata [Accessed on the 20th January 2014]

Deyan Sudjic. How designer Shiro Kuramata helped change views of Japan. [blog] available at: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/647347d0-d411-11e2-a464-00144feab7de.html#axzz2rbPov1VO [Accessed on 20^th January 2014]