November
14, 2005
Hella
Jongerius receives the RISD 2005 Athena Award for Excellence
in Industrial Design
Dutch designer
Hella Jongerius has developed a reputation for combining elements
of high technology with traditional craftsmanship to create
her unique textiles and ceramics. Many of her designs are produced
through JongeriusLab, the company she launched in Rotterdam
in 2000. Jongerius also designs high-end products for manufacturers
such as Maharam, Royal Tichelaar Makkum and Vitra, and a new
line of ceramics she designed for Ikea debuts in August 2005.
Her first big break came in 1993, when a polyurethane bath mat
she created for her final project at the Eindhoven Design Academy
(the top design school in the Netherlands, where she now also
teaches) was picked up by Droog, an influential Dutch design
collective that manufactured many of her early pieces. The young
designer has already garnered considerable acclaim, including
a 2002 retrospective of her work at the Design Museum in London,
having numerous pieces in the permanent collection of the Museum
of Modern Art and guest curating a recent show at the Cooper-Hewitt
National Design Museum in New York City.
About
the RISD Athena Awards
Each year
RISD presents distinguished service awards to outstanding individuals
in the world of art and design and to corporate leaders who
promote design excellence, support the arts and/or exemplify
business innovation. The 2005 Athena Awards were November 14,
at Tribeca Rooftop, New York City. Judith Tannenbaum, Richard
Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art at The RISD Museum presented
the Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf Award to performance artist Laurie
Anderson (pictured above, at the podium).
Athena Awards
were then presented by Barbara Bloemink, curatorial director
of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, to Hella Jongerius for excellence
in industrial design; by Wendy Weitman, curator of prints and
illustrated books at the Museum of Modern Art, to Kiki Smith
for excellence in printmaking; and by RISD President Mandle
to Tiffany & Co. for corporate leadership. As he accepted
the award, Tiffany CEO Michael Kowalski drew laughs by referring
to himself as the “corporate dork” in a crowd of
artists and designers. But the audience was clearly impressed
with the extensive philanthropic and humanitarian efforts of
the Tiffany Foundation, which Mandle had just described.
John Remington,
vice president of Events Marketing and Communications for Target,
introduced the five finalists for the RISD/Target Emerging Designer
Award, selected on the basis of both good citizenship and aesthetic
excellence. Slides of the designers’ work flashed on a
large screen as Remington hailed their achievements: Charlie
Lazor, whose FlatPak home design offers a breakthrough in the
prefab market; Ji Lee, whose speech-bubble stickers turn corporate
messages into democratic dialogue; Gerard Minakawa [RISD ’97,
Industrial Design], who introduces Bolivian craftspeople to
sustainable bamboo designs;Cameron Sinclair, the founder of
Architecture for Humanity, which promotes architecture and design
solutions to humanitarian crises; and Cameron Sinclair, whose
“paraconceptual” objects point to the similarities
between art and design.
Remington
named the winner, Cameron Sinclair, who has of late spent most
of his time coordinating rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina and the earthquake in Pakistan. Sinclair stepped to
the podium, gave his thanks, and without a second thought announced
what he would do with his prize money: “It’s only
fitting that half goes to getting families back into their homes
in Biloxi, Mississippi, and the other half to developing earthquake-resistant
housing in Kashmir.”
Contact:
Rhode
Island School of Design
Two College Street
Providence, RI 02903
Tel.: 401-454-6100
www.risd.edu
