#Paris Design Week Highlights: Joseph Gallery 123 Turenne

In the beautiful airy rooms of the Joseph Gallery in 123 rue Turenne in Paris we often find thought-provoking design. For Paris Design Week they are presenting a fresh and varied selection of pieces with some familiar names and other less so. The pieces are displayed with plenty of room around each work so you can view from every angle which is something we appreciate.  There’s nothing worse than a cramped exhibition where the pieces can’t breathe!

Lights and stools by Olga Bielwaska, Joseph GalleryThese beautiful low ‘Zick Zack’ tables by Olga Bielwaska are each laser cut from a single sheet of steel.  The graphic geometric structures create a playful pattern of light and shadow. We thought they looked particularly striking under the Punkt spun copper hanging lights also by Bielwaska. The conical shaped, light-reflecting copper lights create delicate silhouettes grounded by the dark circular piece of slate above it. Slate and copper – a perfect marriage of materials.

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Beatrice Blanchard Modulable 28 table

The Modulable 28 table by Béatrice Blanchard

The Modulable 28 table, so-called as it consists of 28 pieces, is made of beautiful oak and white-gold. For its creator, Beatrice Blanchard, the choice of materials is intentional and relevant. The connotations which the white gold carries with it are pertinent – both as a safe ‘refuge currency’ value sitting in a bank vault and as a precious and aesthetic form of personal decoration stored in jewelry boxes. There is a solidity in it reflected also in the mighty oak wood. And yet Blanchard chooses these materials to make a table in the form of a popular game. The white gold is worked with a surface texture resembling galuchard which Blanchard has called galuchette. The pieces (each weighing 20 kilos) work together with no form of mechanism or screws as the weight of the pieces serves to anchor them in place.

Detail of modulable 28 table by Beatrice Blanchard~~

Silver deckchair by Betarice Blanchard

‘Silver Chair by Béatrice Blanchard 
You see a conceptual dichotomy again in Blanchard’s ‘Silver chair’.   There is a play here between the low cost copper and leather  and the valuable silver discs on the seating.   The chair structure is that of a very simple mainstream beach chair seen frequently on hundreds of beaches but this one is decorated with expensive silver discs.  A twist in the telling!  The chair is not usable but we were told that Blanchard may explore the design further and produce it as a functional chair.

glass-chair-nisa-kinzhalina-1glass-chair-nisa-kinzhalina-2‘Urban Philosophy Chair by Nissa Kinzhala of NN Design Band

When is a chair more than just a chair? Here Nissa Kinzhalina of NN Design Band has created an optical allusion with her ‘Urban Philosophy’ chair. Made of transparent acrylic, only some of the edges are lined with black metal and so depending on where your viewpoint is, you will see the frame in the form of a traced rectangle or an irregular polygon. The effect is mesmerizing.

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Hanging light by Miranda WatkinsThe ‘Random’ light by Miranda Watkins is made up of perspex panels each attached by a single fibre which encircle and move around a central light source. We love the way the movement of each panel is subtle and creates a delicate elegance which belies the solid silhouette of the light when seen as a whole. It was first created in 2004 and Watkins has explored the core concept with models using anodized aluminum panels as well as perspex.

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Stay tuned – lots more to come in the next few days from us during this #Parisdesignweek!

Galerie Joseph, 123 rue de Turenne 75003 Paris

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