SOMETHING SMELLS STRANGE
FEATURING WORKS BY
SOFT BAROQUE (AU/SI)
ANDRÉDOTTIR BOBEK (DK)
SALOMÉ CHATRIOT (FR)
STINE DEJA (DK)
VICTOR MIKLOS (DK)
CHLOÉ ROYER (FR)
CURATED BY SIF LINDBLAD
The exhibition emerges from Etage Project’s identity as one that wishes to question the traditional boundaries between function and abstraction as well as it supports and expands the idea of ‘strange’ design — presenting what one could call different strategies of the strange;
It can be argued that the strange arises from the conflict between the de-functionalisation of the everyday object and the re-functionalisation of the art object. Here, the moderate form of strangeness is key: If the objects are too strange, they are instantly rejected; if they are not strange enough, they are absorbed into the reality of everyday life. Fertile egg lamps, sun beds with sweat marks, overdimensional strollers with moving faces, bar stools merging into distorted animals.
Instead of offering solutions, the exhibits raise questions: Speculative and anthropomorphic designs that aim to challenge narrow assumptions and pre-understandings about what role design plays in our everyday lives by exploring atypical and unexpected dimensions of functionality. As unclassifiable creatures they exist voluntarily as hybrids that blur the boundaries between human, animal, object and machine.
SOMETHING SMELLS STRANGE shows a form of design that does not intend to be affirmative, but rather to be satirically critical.
Go to artist page: Soft Baroque
