From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Sat Mar 01 2003 - 06:59:13 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: bern
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 9:40 PM
To: bern_at_eamesoffice.com
Subject: Eames Office Newsletter February 2003
Dear Friend of the Eames Office,
Once again this newsletter has made it just under the wire (February
is such a short month!). I promise we'll get it out earlier for
March. Fortunately, I don't think we've sandbagged any of the events
by waiting too long. In terms of news, there are a few things going
on, but I wanted to focus on two.
First, we have a few of the limited edition Gold Leaf Anniversary
tables on display at our gallery. These were ones that we did in
honor of the 50th anniversary of the building of the Eames House.
This is the same design that is in the alcove of the Eames House
living room. Parke Meek (who used to work at the Eames Office for
many years and now has that very cool storefront Jadis on Main Street
a few doors down from the gallery) told some of us at the gallery the
story behind the finish on this table. Originally, Parke said,
Charles was pursuing a certain kind of look from polished brass as
the surface of the table. But no matter how many times they did, it
just wasn't right--so finally they just put gold leaf over the whole
thing and it has lived at the Eames House ever since. Because of
that uniqueness, it seemed the proper way to celebrate the Eames
House. Working with Herman Miller, we made a numbered edition of
500. There are still some relatively low numbers available (in the
200s) but we can only promise for sale the numbers that are on the
floor at the gallery when you are here. Needless to say, the table
is extremely beautiful but also quite hefty (because of the
materials). One is tempted to say that pound for pound it is one of
the best furniture values around, but the understated dignity and
elegance is its real wonder.
Second, in London at the Curzon Soho Theater, there is going to be an
Eames film festival at the end of March (March 21 and 22; call the
theater for details) showing a whole program of films on hirez
projection DVD (just saw some Eames films screened this way and they
look wonderful on the big screen), including A Communications Primer,
Banana Leaf, Johnny Peer's Clown Face, Atlas, Symmetry, SX-70.
Kepler's Laws, A Computer Glossary and Polyorchis Haplus as well as a
few others. Johnny Peer's Clown Face is an excerpt from the Eames
film Clown Face (the training film that Charles and Ray made for
Ringling Brothers Clown College). What is interesting is that
Charles would often show it with Polyorchis Haplus (about a small
jellyfish) and the film Symmetry as part of a "symmetry reel" in his
lectures. They were all brief illustrations of ways people encounter
symmetry. So it is nice that the Curzon Cinema has reunited these
films for their show.
Banana Leaf is also a rarely seen film and was considered as a
possible Math Peep Show for the Mathematica exhibit. Banana Leaf is
a kind of parable which begins with the statement that in India the
lowest in class eat off of Banana Leaf. But as you move up the
economic ladder, there is a thing called a tali, which can be made of
clay or bronze or silver or even gold, but when you reach a certain
level and a certain kind of enlightenment, the highest in caste eat
off of a . . . Banana Leaf. I have always found the fact that Eameses
originally conceived the film Banana Leaf as a kind of math vignette,
a wonderful comment on how they saw things. The film was never
finished and the film being shown is a close to final cut.
Another rarely seen film on show is the film A Communication Primer,
from which I took the title of my book An Eames Primer. This film is
remarkable for a number of qualities: it is their first film with
their (soon to become) dear friend and collaborator Elmer Bernstein
as composer; it was the film that introduced the Eameses to IBM;
parts of it are were made for the Sample Lesson for a Hypothetical
Course presentation; but above all is their first film to be a kind
of essay. They literally envisaged it as a way to teach the tools of
communication to architects and designers. I am often asked at my
talks if Charles and Ray would make it in today's world and I think
the answer is clearly yes. No one asked them to make A
Communications Primer, they saw a need and filled it themselves.
Paradoxically, by doing it for such pure reasons, it ended up
teaching potential clients and partners about the breadth and value
of the Eames Vision.
Hope to see you around the gallery
thanks
Eames Demetrios
Eames Events
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH:
Gold Leaf Anniversary tables (see main body of the newsletter for
more). to see what one looks like
http://www.eamesoffice.com/catalog/detail.php?category=128&prod_id=43
CURRENT EAMES EVENTS:
THE WORK OF CHARLES & RAY EAMES: A LEGACY OF INVENTION
Artium in Vitoria Spain
January 23 2003 through May 4 2003
http://www.artium.org
THIN SKIN: THE FICKLE NATURE OF BUBBLES, SPHERES, AND
INFLATABLE STRUCTURES
A traveling exhibition curated by Independent Curators International
exploring our existence on Earth includes the classic Eames film,
Powers of Ten.
McAllen International Museum
McAllen Texas
January 25 through March 30 2003
http://www.mcallenmuseum.org
LUCY'S HOUSE
A film by Eames Demetrios (2002)
Recycled materials, including carpet tiles, used in building
structures by Rural Studios.
A r c h i t e k t u r z e n t r u m W i e n
Museumsquartier - Museumsplatz 1
A - 1070 V i e n n a
A U S T R I A
T++43 1 522 31 15 Ext.32
F++43 1 522 31 17
http://www.azw.at
NEW FILM PROGRAMME
Communication Primer: The Films of Charles and Ray Eames.
Curzon Soho, 93-107 Shaftsbury Avenue,
London, England
March 21/22
The Eames Office is dedicated to communicating, preserving, and
extending the work of Charles and Ray Eames.
Copyright 2003 Lucia Eames dba Eames office. For personal use only.
You may feel free to forward it to your friends in its entirety.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Sat Mar 01 2003 - 07:13:17 PST