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.
GenevaThere 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
ArialEames
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
0000,0000,00FFhttp://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
0000,0000,00FFhttp://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
0000,0000,00FFhttp://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.