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“I believe that we could be living in an entirely different world - one that is full of real, contemporary, inspiring objects, spaces, places, worlds, spirits and experiences,” imagines New York-based and Cairo-born designer/artist Karim Rashid and adds: “I want to change the world” - and he has certainly made a good step towards doing so in the world of design. With more the 2,500 modern designs and contemporary products worldwide in production. By using high-end technology in real-time his works are imbued with a permanent immediacy, which is the most important component in defining their essence.
Without a doubt one of his outstanding characteristics is his professional approach to design as a modern media. And nowhere is the professionalism of the design process more evident than in furniture, interior spaces as hotels and restaurants, digitally-created patterns and ornaments, and packaging design. In order to design flacons, for example, numerous skills are required, ranging from marketing via psychology, a feeling for Eros and sensuality, a sense of shape, to a knack for dealing with clients of global repute such as Miyake, Lauder, Davidoff or Kenzo. In all his work Karim Rashid acts as a creative artist, an experienced art director and a business man. His holistic thinking comes into play and is translated into a sensitive approach to design.
For the last two years Instituto Tomie Ohtake has been planning the first solo show in Brazil on Rashid’s work, which is often a hybrid between art and design.
The exhibition presented the true scope and dimensions of modern life from furniture, packaging interior spaces to media like design as digital pop and fashion. You enter the exhibition through a enormous printed painting 300 sq. m. in size. This painting-like computer graphic creates a mega-backdrop against which the visitor perceives the furniture pieces shown on an asymmetric island as if s/he were Alice in wonderland. In this virtual exhibition environment, visitors encounter the artist as an avatar - a life-size duplication of the artist. This again enhances the interplay between reality and artificiality as is typical of the work of artist-designer Karim Rashid. For he strongly believes that artificiality is an aspect of the modern being, which defines even human live more and more in our times.
The very audacity with which Instituto Tomie Ohtake is showcasing the work of artist-designer Karim Rashid will fuel the debate in Brazil about aspects of contemporary design and its impact on daily life.
The exhibition is also an international cooperation with Munich’s renowned design museum, Die Neue Sammlung, known as one of the largest institutes of this kind. Most of the shown pieces are from the Munich collection. The exhibition is curated by German art historian and critic Dr. Albrecht Bangert in cooperation with Brazilian-born designer and architect Camila Tariki from the New York studio of Karim Rashid and organized by Instituto Tomie Ohtake, with the collaboration of Roberto Lot Cocenza (RS Promo).