EXHIBITION:Buying well-designed furniture that is built to last is a far better option than choosing mass-produced items that will end up in a landfill in a few years' time
THE OBJECTS, IMAGES and designs on display at the RDS next week may seem to be luxury items. They may well look like the first things that should go as we continue to tighten our belts and cut our costs, but, viewed another way, they could also be a step on the road to recovery.
If that seems simplistic, or if you’re thinking, “How can a table rescue the economy?” the point is that the design and artwork at the Interior Design and Art Fair represent the antidote to many of the ways of thinking that have got us into such a mess in the first place.
Individually crafted objects, using sustainable materials, and made by craftspeople in Ireland, are the antithesis of the mass-produced products of multi-nationals whose profits end up elsewhere, often made by workers whose conditions of employment leave a lot to be desired.
Arthur Duff, of Duff Tisdall, who will be at the fair, says: “The danger is you can go to places and get five of something for two-shillings-and-six-pence, but as you only need two of them, the other three become landfill. More and more isn’t better. And bringing fashion into design is just structuring in obsolescence. Buying good design is like buying the ‘good coat’ that will last you for years and years and pay for itself that way.”
He also points out that the word “design” is much maligned. “You can get designer carrots, designer knickers . . . the word has been abused by the consumer machine to sell product at any cost. When we’re talking about design, we’re talking about coming back to first principles.”
Director Louis Sullivan established the fair in 2004, when, admittedly, there was a great deal more money out there to be spent on our homes. But, he says, even though the present times are challenging, it is “important and necessary” to platform and champion Irish design.
This is a theme taken up by Shane Holland, who as well as exhibiting his own lighting and furniture work, has also selected a special new section, called “the cream of Irish design”.
“I had been frustrated,” says Holland, “that there were no showcases of Irish talent, so I went to Louis with the idea. I think this is the kind of thing that people such as Enterprise Ireland should have been supporting for years.” The support needed, he continues, “is not necessarily financial, it’s for people to realise that there’s something good going on here, and that it’s worth promoting. It’s all about small businesses, and our own creativity. It’s about what we have in ourselves that is positive.”
Holland’s own exhibits at the fair will include high-end wood furniture, but also funkier pieces, such as a chandelier made from recyclable plastics. The price tag is obviously higher than the mass-produced objects for sale in our out-of-town retail parks, but Holland believes those purchases are a false economy. “If you’re going to have something in your house for a long time, choose carefully and choose well.”
This is a point echoed by Susan Zelouf of zelouf+BELL, whose mantra is “buy better, buy less”. The work she will be showing this year is mainly commissioned objects, including a walnut console table, the base of which was inspired by a bridge on the M50. “People are still commissioning and buying,” she says. “It’s an intensely creative process that they really enjoy. People save up for the commissions, so you don’t have to be mega-rich. However, furniture is expensive, and we work with artists such as Killian Schurmann and Martin Finnin to make things that people put their heart and souls into.”
What the designers and makers here are trying to present is that marriage of practical beauty, the skill of craftsmanship learned over time, and the extra element of design that makes an object special.
Getting away from the over-marketed notions of design-as-disposable-fashion, such as tiger-print sofas that are landfill a year later, and returning, instead, to pieces that are saved up for, thought about, loved and cared for, and then handed on to the next generation, makes each piece an investment in Ireland’s future as well as in an object for the home.
In a separate hall, the contemporary art aspect of the fair will see 21 of our leading galleries and arts publications showcasing a different kind of creativity. From affordable prints, to one-off works, galleries such as the Graphic Studio, Paul Kane and the Rubicon are presenting the best of contemporary Irish and international art.
The feel and mood here is always very different to that at the interiors fair: with lots of looking in awe, excitement, or bewilderment – and no touching. But at every stand in the fair, what you will find are passionate people, who want to talk to you about what they’re doing. As Arthur Duff puts it: “People can come to the fair and enjoy looking with no pressure to buy. Come with a shopping list of ideas, and we can talk.”