What could possibly be done that is new at an exhibition of works of graduates of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design visual communications department - especially after the successful exhibition curated last year by Yael Burstein in the same space?
On the surface there is nothing revolutionary about what the curator, designer Michal Sahar, did in breaking down the walls between the classrooms. Maybe it is even banal. But Sahar has created one of the most impressive exhibition spaces in the country, one not inferior in quality to museum spaces here and abroad.
Breaking down the walls was not Sahar's only curatorial move. She covered the walls with metal panels to which she attached the students' works with magnets, giving the space the feeling of a working design studio. Another innovation was the decision in certain cases to leave out the final project if it was weaker than other works done in the third and fourth years. This decision also led to a farewell to the traditional allocation of a given amount of space for each student where he shows his work, in favor of the creation of a new syntax among the various works.
The graduates' exhibition of the visual communications department at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan was also notable in a similar way. If last year the exhibition was problematic from the curatorial perspective, in part because of the small space allocated to it, this year designers Kobi Franco and Hila Shaltieli tackled the mission and understood it was an exhibition in every respect. The two created a design exhibition that could stand its own with design exhibitions worldwide. When you add to that the rare quality and the extraordinary variety of the works exhibited in the space, it was one of the most impressive graduates' exhibitions here in recent years.
It is not by chance that the curators of the two exhibitions, at Bezalel and at Shenkar, are among the most talented book designers currently active in Israel. Designing a book demands above all dealing with many materials and an understanding of the hierarchy - what is more important and what is less so; what has to be on the front cover and what on the back; with what to begin and with what to end. It is necessary to know how to deal with a great deal of material and how to make it accessible - to the readers in the case of a book, and to the visitors in the case of an exhibition.
Though the character of an exhibition carries a lot of weight in the visitors' experience, the works that are shown in it are more important. Over 700 graduates of about 20 departments showed their works during the past two weeks - some of them are still on display - in the end-of-year exhibitions of 10 schools of design: Seminar Hakibbutzim in Tel Aviv, Hadassah College in Jerusalem, the Holon Institute of Technology, Bezalel, Shenkar, the Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv, Minshar for Art in Tel Aviv, WIZO Haifa, the Tel Hai Institute of the Arts and the Goren Design School at the Academic College of Emek Yezreel. The graduates' works cover various fields: industrial design, visual communication, jewelry design, textile design, ceramics and glass.
The attempt to extract insights and identify trends from such a large number of works and fields is not simple, but it is a lot simpler than the unreasonable demand from the students to succeed in their final project and create what is called "the wow effect." Tslil Dahan of the Avni visual communications department related to this in her humorous and critical final project. In it she designed the image for a "final project" that included, among other things, "One large poster for the show;" "Some sort of gimmick for the wow;" "A text brochure for the typography;" "A series of postcards to inflate the project;" and most importantly "A visiting card for finding work."
Failure is allowed
But beyond the amusement and the gimmick, is it possible to expect every final project to be excellent? Innovative? Perfect with respect to concept, finish and production processes? Of course not. But few department heads and directors of institutions are prepared to admit this. One of the exceptions was Ronen Leibman, head of the design department at Seminar Hakibbutzim, who opened the journalists' tour of the exhibition with the unpopular statement that it is permitted to fail in a final project. Acknowledging that this is a common cliche, Leibman added that the process is just as important as the final result, especially at an institution that, in addition to training designers, also trains the future teachers of design at high schools around the country.
Another emphasis, according to Leibman, was a focus on environmentally relevant projects with a social, cultural or political statement. The first stirrings of this trend were visible several years ago and seem to be growing stronger every year at most of the schools. For example, among the exhibits at Seminar Hakibbutzim was Rani Zabari's final project, an unmanned vehicle for extinguishing fires, which was born of the need to give a more effective solution for putting out forest fires, saving human lives and minimizing losses among firefighters. The vehicle, which has no driver, is controlled remotely by an operator using a portable control system. The system is deployed at the gathering area of the firefighting and rescue forces and creates a first ring of defense that helps the firefighters control the blaze.
Coping with disasters is also dealt with in Yaniv Kadosh's final project at the Shenkar industrial design department. Kadosh has made a parachuting platform called Airdrop, which enables the transfer of aid packages of up to two kilograms in disaster zones where there is a need for immediate distribution of supplies to a large population that is not possible using conventional methods. Kadosh's sources of inspiration were tree seeds that parachute in order to multiply. The wrapping of the kit consists of a single folded sheet of cardboard, with a plastic fastener serving as the axis of folding and the spine of the wing.
Though it does not involve disasters of a similar magnitude, the project by Naora Zigler of the industrial design department at Hadassah College also dealt with meeting a need. She created tools to encourage experiential-sensual cooking, especially but not only for the visually-impaired. Her observation of blind and vision-impaired people cooking yielded two emphases: on the one hand, reinforcing the sensual experience (smell, taste and touch ) for sighted people, and on the other hand, creating safe cooking tools that help blind people and make basic cooking activities easier for them.
Social concern was also evident at the industrial design department at the Holon Institute of Technology. For example, Maya Ober's project, which included a series of items called Awataf, was produced in cooperation with women from Kafr Manda at the basket weaving center of the Sindyanna of Galilee Fair Trade for Fair Society organization. The non-profit association founded a workshop that provides an employment solution for Palestinian women from the village in the Jezreel Valley, where the unemployment rate is among the highest in northern Israel. The aim of the project was develop a new and up to date line of projects that would improve and refine the production methods while contributing to the community. In the series, new products, such as baskets, lamps and vases, were produced through a combination of aluminum extrusion and laser cutting technologies and reed basket weaving. In addition to the social statement it is possible to see in Awataf a manifestation of one of the trends that have characterized the design world in recent years: a spillover and connection between industrial technologies and traditional handicrafts.
This trend was also at the center of exhibits of the various craft departments, which garner less media exposure even though every year they are quite interesting. For example, the textile design graduates' exhibition at Shenkar reflected the trends in the design field in general as well as textile design in particular. Alongside collections of new fabrics that were made with weaving, knitting or compacting technologies and mostly underwent dying and printing, there were also up to date applications of advanced production technologies, the assimilation of ideas from the field of the design of durable goods and the serial development of products that combine artistic gestures with industrial production.
Especially outstanding was Rotem Wilk's final project, a collection of spirally knitted fabrics with a structure inspired by the spiral world in nature and architecture. Wilk combined nylon threads of various kinds and fishermen's twine in a technique based on industrial knitting. The development of a seamless structure like this on a knitting machine constituted a challenge because knitted structures are usually made by hand and not on an industrial production line.
Internal rhythm
At the Bezalel department of ceramic and glass design it was also possible to see technological achievements alongside conceptual thinking, and video works alongside work with unusual materials. The variety of the works shown in the exhibition proved once again that this is one of the most interesting departments at the design schools today. Especially outstanding was a series of objects created by Ayala Sol Friedman called "Beats:" narrow, colorful pieces of porcelain of various lengths and thicknesses, which served as building blocks and were joined together by what look like clay brushstrokes. After firing at a high temperature in a kiln, the objects took on an additional dimension of movement and rhythm. The designer's monotone action combined with the action of the kiln created picturesque objects with an inner rhythm.
Like Wilk and Sol Friedman, Guy Mishali of the industrial design department at Bezalel also created a new technique - for making tin stools called "Blast." However, in contrast to the careful work and admirable control of the production process exercised by the other two, in his final project Mishali undermines the designer's control of the final result. He drew his inspiration from the worlds of sabotage and explosions. The objects start out as geometrical volumes from sheets of tin, which are threaded with an explosive. The explosion turns the generic shape into an object with an identity of its own and a unique character, even if the effect of the explosion will always create objects that are different from one another. Though the result is not especially impressive, this is not a gimmick: The production process that questions the existing order and the designers's authority makes this project unusual and thought-provoking.
The exhibition at Seminar Hakibbutzim will be open until tomorrow; the ones at the Holon Technological Institute and Hadassah College, until Thursday. The exhibitions at Shenkar, Bezalel, Minshar and the Tel Hai Institute of the Arts will continue until Friday; the WIZO Haifa one, until Sunday; and the exhibition at Goren will be on until August 8.
