Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Architectural Digest Home Design Show. It was a 4-day affair held at Pier 94 on 12th Avenue. Somewhat like Manila’s annual WorldBEX building materials exhibit, the show featured interior design products as well as a series of professional talks under a forum called the “Master’s Studio”.
The furniture exhibit was OK but nothing really new. (I thought that our Manila furniture shows displayed the same products more or less.) However, the interesting stuff for me turned out to be the arty interior decor products. The wall art section featured new display technology. Many ‘paintings’ had glistening front surfaces. (A process that binds together art sheet material - fotograms, trad portraitures, etc - with flexiglass facing seems popular today). There were other 'surface' types. Some drawings were actually composed over layers of glass that give ‘depth’ of vision in a real sense. For some reason, the etched stainless steel panel with its stark and contemporary appearance was quite noticeable.
Then there were the faux chandeliers. Consisting of Czech crystals strung along formed wire frames, the chandeliers had a kind of lightweight elegance to them. The frames with their different crystal types a-glistening surround the lighting fixture or even a mirror panel to convey art deco-like classicism in a low tech way. The strung crystals remind me of the business of a niece of mine. She made bracelets, necklaces and other female accessories. (She was doing fine until she got married and settled down in California).
I thought that the new art products can be made by our own Pinoy talents readily. It is heavy in manual creative content which can be readily done by artists. How about it, Fine Arts Cafas? Insomniacs can be productive particularly for the crystal 'framing' items since this work can be done on the dining room table. The framed chandelier I saw is priced at $12K ( several past models had been sold to hotels). The mirror frame is $7K and which took the artist 4 weeks to do.
The Masters’ Studio presentations were also revealing. One interior designer said that much like Doctors today, there are all kinds of specialists in an interior design team (would you believe a bookshelf stylist?). The talks on sustainable design was not really new - one award winning young architect admitted that it may take longer before sustainable design can catch on (at least in the NY upscale scene). There is an additional cost connected to Green Design which many clients still tend to reject. One of the presentors however gave a nice shot in the arm for prefabricated housing. While his exteriors look like enlarged shipping containers, his interiors look very functional, spacious and even comparatively attractive as far as the layout of NY apartment goes.
This weekend Bili and I might see a Broadway show. That will be another story.
See slide show for more photos.
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