Read my lips

This chair is a response to the concept of pimping at its most fundamental: the flagrant use of cosmetics to enhance, attract or exaggerate.

Arguably the most iconic form of cosmetic enhancement is the application of lipstick. The open back of the Ono chair provides a gap around which to frame a mouth. Applied to a chair the image of lips and the colour of lipstick is a contradictory, playful and ambiguous motif. Is it charming or vulgar; Sweet or tart? Shades of red: Shades of Surrealism and Pop Art? Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe pout turned into a shout? Do you think Salvador Dali’ s Mae West Lips Sofa a little to full-bodied? Try the slimmer, firmer kiss of the new Ono model, ‘Read my Lips’… It’s all question of taste!

Ralph Ball

Current Research

I define my research activity as critical design practice. My research draws on rhetorical themes and axioms specific to Modernism, Postmodernism and contemporary design. This research is articulated through the generation and realisation of artifacts, which investigate, illuminate and question design culture. I call this activity 'Design Poetics.' Design Poetics forms an experimental, continuously evolving series of objects and collections, which act as commentaries and contemplations on the culture of Modernism, Postmodernism and contemporary design. The work specifically rejects the discrete distinctions of Art, Craft and Design. It explores the conceptual, provocative and lyrical possibilities of the spaces in between. Drawing on rhetorical themes and axioms specific to Modernism and design culture (Form follows Function, Less is More, Decoration and Crime, Transparency, Multi-function etc) object typologies and generic forms characteristic of the modern furniture/lighting genre are re-examined. These rational and reductive axioms are co-opted to endorse paradox and legitimize the invention of formal incongruities, rational irrationalities or poetic transgressions. Ironic iconics: the pieces are self consciously introspective and are made to reflect upon themselves and the culture that supports them.

• http://www.ait-charitychair.de
• http://www.dietiker.com
• http://www.ait-charitychair.de