Book: Home-made Europe, published by Fuel
Amid the gleaming new products from the furniture mega brands at the Salone del Mobile this year, we discovered a refreshing homage to home-spun DIY. Vladimir Arkhipov’s new compendium, published by Fuel design group and launched at Paul Smith in Milan, is illustrated with the stuff of trash or treasure, depending on where you’re standing.
The Russian artist and collector criss-crossed Europe in the name of research, tracking down ordinary people who have addressed their basic household needs with extraordinary inventions, often involving bits and bobs of other, less essential household objects.
Chronicling his discoveries from Albania to Wales, Arkhipov – whose widely acclaimed 2006 collection ‘Home-Made Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts’ spawned this new and more varied edition – reveals a nautilus machine constructed from a car’s axle and a drawing stool; an heirloom ladle moulded from a melted-down German bomber, and a ski-bob made out of an old bicycle.
‘Many of these objects look like art,’ says Jeremy Deller, the Turner Prize-winning artist who wrote the book’s foreward, ‘but in actual fact art looks like, if not aspires to be like, these objects.’
But just as curious as these configurations of scrap metal, clothespins and chicken wire are the stories that accompany them. They speak of an innate desire to create, whether by necessity or simply for the love of getting some dirt under their fingernails. At least that’s something all the exhibitors at Salone have in common.
Spoon by Ivan Kuzmitch Satchivko in Kiev, Ukraine, 1946-48. Satchivko created this spoon when times were tough in post-war Kiev, and household goods were in short supply. Says his son Fyodor Ivanovitch: 'One day some relatives from the country brought him some aluminium wreckage from a downed German bomber, and asked him to make useful household things out of it: combs, spoons, mugs, bowls. Nothing was left of the wreckage when he'd finished'
Table tennis ball case by Albina Leonidovna Falko, in Perm, Russia, 1985. Table tennis balls were hard to find in shops in 1980s Perm. Says Falko's son Mikhail Turbinksy: 'One day I complained to my mother saying that it would be nice to make some sort of a small box so the ball wouldn't get damaged, and as a result I got this wonderful piece here. It's made from titanium. On top of that it was argon-welded together with some kind of aeroplane material.'
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Utilitarian men’s fashion that will elevate your everyday
From Prada to Margaret Howell, utilitarian and workwear-inspired men’s fashion gets an upgrade for S/S 2024
By Jack Moss Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Vipp’s Scandinavian guesthouse offers a sleek setting amid a wild landscape
Vipp Cold Hawaii is a Scandinavian guesthouse designed by architecture studio Hahn Lavsen in Denmark’s Thy National Park
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Sir Kenneth Grange’s influential industrial designs are chronicled in a new book
‘Kenneth Grange: Designing the Modern World’ explores the life and work of the pioneering British industrial designer
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
LA gallery Blackman Cruz celebrates 30 years of ‘beauty, oddity, and specialness’
‘Beauty & Mischief: The Design Alchemy of Blackman Cruz’ is a new book that charts three decades of the LA antique and modern furniture gallery, with a foreword by Ryan Murphy
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
From the spoon to the city: the design of Gianfranco Frattini
‘Gianfranco Frattini. Design 1955/2003’ is a new book chronicling the architect and designer’s work as well as his concept of designing ‘from the spoon to the city’
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Inside Salvador Dalí’s eccentric Portlligat home
Salvador Dalí's eccentric Portlligat home is the subject of ‘Casa Dalí’, a new book by Apartamento with photography by Coco Capitán
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
A new book charts the history of Black design
'Now You See Me! An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design' is a new book by Charlene Prempeh covering fashion, architecture and design
By Shawn Adams Published
-
Ronan Bouroullec book merges art, design and everyday life
‘Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day’, from Phaidon, is a visual inventory of the French designer’s work, artistic output and daily inspiration
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Arnold Schwarzenegger book launch rests on a Radical Design icon reimagined
This stand for the new Arnold Schwarzenegger book by Taschen was originally designed as a seating object, ‘Capitello’, by Franco Audrito’s Studio 65
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Rome Colosseum bookshop design is based on a light, modular system
The bookshops at Rome’s Colosseum are part of Migliore+Servetto’s new concept for Italian publishing house Electa
By Rosa Bertoli Published