Shining a light, from New York to 'Big Brother'

Most people are not likely to be impressed by the appraisal of Israeli designer Ron Gilad's work as "extraordinarily refined," even though the person who says it is a senior curator in the department of architecture and design at New York's Museum of Modern Art, Paola Antonelli.

And if you are not in the field, you are also likely to be indifferent to the remarks of Brett Littman. The deputy director of the MoMA-affiliated P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, also in New York, says Gilad's work "explores not only how things are made but also delves into the poetic and subjective nature of objects as they relate to the contemporary world we live in."

Despite the fact that Gilad, who has been living in New York for the past nine years, is one of the most admired Israeli designers today, it is reasonable to assume that most people do not recognize his name or the objects he has designed, except perhaps for the light fixture hanging over the dining table used by Aline, Eliraz, Saar and their friends on the set of Big Brother.

The fixture is called the Dear Ingo, in tribute to German lighting designer Ingo Maurer. Intended for office use, it is constructed of 16 simple black reading lamps that are attached at the center and extend outward like a spider's legs. Gilad is currently in Israel to participate in the launch of a new showroom at the Karney-Tchelet-Alkabes lighting company, which sells the lighting fixture.

Love letter

"Dear Ingo came about as a joke," Gilad told Haaretz by e-mail. "My first studio in New York was located above a Maurer store, and I couldn't help but notice his work every morning while crossing the street for a cup of coffee. I gradually developed a desire to respond in a playful way. The lamp is a kind of love letter, a sign of recognition of the value of his work. At the same time, I am declaring my place, and grinding my teeth at the vast amount of territory taken up by great masters."

Gilad says designer Marcel Wanders was so taken with the joke that he asked to add it to the collection at his Dutch firm Moooi.

Gilad, 38, studied industrial design at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan. He has exhibited around the world, and his designs can be found in the collections of important museums. In 2006 he became one of a small group of artists receiving financial support from the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation for up to five years.

Before leaving Israel nearly a decade ago, he had two solo exhibitions in the country and developed objects that he says "would today be called 'design art.'" Take the Vase Maker, a very small, minimalist porcelain vase whose open base is attached to a square, flat surface that can be placed over any container of water - a glass, an old tin can or a plastic cup - so that the final object is redesigned each time, depending on the choice of container. The Vase Maker represents Gilad's approach of breaking down objects and reconstructing them while creating a dialogue between form and function.

Another vase created by Gilad, the Run Over by Car Vase, represents the same concept. Inspired by the events of 9/11, the following year Gilad created a vase made of brass tubes that had been run over by a car.

"With the power that is being forced on the cylinder, you get all sorts of interesting deformations," Gilad said in an interview with The New York Times in 2006. "It creates a beautiful defect." Gilad said the World Trade Center attack forced him to consider the role that unforeseeable circumstances play in everyday life. "The idea was to create an object through a new process, one in which the designer doesn't necessarily have full control over the final result," he told the paper. "Fate should rule the object's final form."

Playful, poetic, philosophical

Elegant, minimalist, playful, poetic, a philosophical rethinking of the everyday - these are just some of the terms used to describe Gilad's work. So it's no wonder that when he is asked to explain his thinking, he supplies a philosophical answer.

"My work deals with the relations between the object and its function," he said. "I use things to examine our conceptions. We are familiar with everyday objects from the day we are born; they are so deeply ingrained in our consciousness that we almost ignore their presence. I am trying to renew our approach and our appreciation of them."

Gilad said he considers himself the design equivalent of a linguist.

"Metaphorically, I think of myself as a linguist who develops his own language, studies the origin of words, and searches for new synonyms," he said. "My objects are suggestions, not solutions. I want them to maintain their open-endedness, hoping that they will arouse doubt. To return to your question: As you see, I sometimes discover that I stray in unplanned directions."

Gilad moved to the United States because of "an offer I couldn't refuse," he said. Together with businessman Lior Haramaty, he started the New York-based company Designfenzider, which combines design, art and commerce. "New York wasn't my dream, but it somehow turned into my reality," said Gilad. "At first I was intoxicated with the social and cultural life it offered. I slowly realized that you can't take advantage of everything. And I began to see that I am an agoraphobe who is addicted to big-city life.

"I don't go to events, to exhibition openings, but despite everything, I still enjoy New York, especially from behind the windows of my studio. It has become a laboratory for experiments in ideas that are developed into products, and a device to send them out into the world. While I don't keep up with the local design scene, it is hard not to notice the difficult financial situation in the city, and I have a feeling that the ship is slowly sinking."

As a result of the recession, Gilad has recently begun to provide services for other companies instead of focusing on independent projects. For instance, he has designed several lighting fixtures for Flos Lighting Company, which manufactures and distributes lighting products.

"Working with Flos is a relatively new thing for my studio," he said. "We have to a certain extent moved from designing our own pieces to giving services to a select number of other companies, ridding ourselves of the hard work involved in manufacturing an archetype, finding suppliers, and of production, marketing and sales of my art. Luckily for me, I don't have to work according to specific plans or requests. I offer my point of view about the product and they accept it or they don't."

Last year at Wright20, an auction house in Chicago specializing in modern and contemporary art and design, Gilad exhibited in a show called Spaces Etc./An Exercise in Utility, which dealt with conceptions of spaces within objects and between the object and the user. The products on display were similar to his earlier work, such as a glass vase in which flowers are supported by an iron skeleton.

"When working with household objects, I take it for granted that I have to check out their environment, the surrounding spaces and the space they take up," said Gilad. "I have always been enchanted by size, and I see a great similarity between architecture and product design. Architecture critics probably won't be happy to hear this."

Gilad said he feels no compunction about flitting among architecture, design and art, saying: "I do toy with these classifications all the time and enjoy causing people to examine definitions for themselves. But I prefer not to label my work and leave that to others."

Snow White dinnerware

One characteristic of Gilad's work is a dry sense of humor. Writing an e-mail about the Snow White dinner plates he designed for the Driade Kosmo tableware design firm, which feature miniature images of a woman in various positions around the edge of the plate, Gilad said: "Our studio manager was very sexy and I thought she'd look terrific served up on a plate."

"But seriously," he added, "Driade wanted us to decorate a set of white porcelain dinnerware and I didn't like the idea. I did some research into the history of plate decoration and found that the goal was always to beautify without any regard to function. When food is placed on plates, the decoration is obscured and you get plate, design and food completely unrelated to each other. My idea was to produce a design that would enable interaction with the food and open up new creative possibilities to the diner. I did this by minimizing the human figure (Sara, the former studio manager) and arranging pictures of her in different poses on the dish's playing field."

Gilad said he is inspired by older concepts, saying he's crazy about seeing "whether 15-year-old ideas are still relevant."

"I'm a big fan of culture in all its forms," he said. "I have a large appetite for visual and concrete information, but I don't become curious easily, something which makes me very picky."

There was nothing in Gilad's childhood that inspired his career, the designer said. "I grew up in a simple family with a socialist orientation that had no interest in anything but the basics: a roof over our heads, food and a slight interest in culture," he said.

All the same, he considers himself an Israeli designer, though his life in New York also plays a role in his identity.

"Since I was educated in Israel and belonged to the Israeli design scene for a few years, I know most of the designers my age and older," he said. "Ours is a small country, but we have an outstanding number of talented, world-class artists and designers. Aside from the influence of our genes, we are all affected by our surroundings, by culture and our experiences.

"When I am in New York I feel like an Israeli designer, but I would say that when I am in Israel I discover that I am not only an Israeli designer. Living and working outside of my homeland adds another layer to my design experience."