Furniture brand Moroso has posted some photos of the Tokujin Yoshioka installation at their store on Greene Street in New York (via dezain.net).
The installation premieres the production version of Yoshioka's Panna chair, which was shown at the prototype stage in Milan in April.
Yoshioka will be named Designer of the Year at the year's Design Miami fair, which takes place in December.
Here is the press release from Moroso:
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Tokujin Yoshioka Installation Opens at Moroso
October 4th 2007: Opening today, an installation by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka will transform the Moroso store at 146 Greene Street in New York into an ethereal, all-white environment. Tokujin has built an art installation that fully involves the space in all its smallest details, drawing in, engaging and amazing the spectator. Tokujin also created an installation at Moroso in Milan during the annual Italian Furniture Fair this past April. As in Milan, the New York installation will show the development of Tokujin’s Panna Chair. However, New York will be the international debut of the final version of this chair.
The work of Tokujin extracts unexpected potential from materials through extraordinary creativity, patience and precision. His work is based on research into the use of new materials or taking ordinary materials and using them in extraordinary ways. As in Milan, the world Tokujin creates in New York provides a place of quiet refuge through a sculptural, all-white, cloud-like environment. In the East, the color white represents spirituality, space and thought. In Milan, Tokujin took the simple drinking straw and created an entire world by piling over three million, floor to ceiling, in long undulating walls. In New York, he plans to use tissues in a similarly mysterious fashion, so that one will hardly recognize their quotidian quality.
The exhibition shows the development of Tokujin’s Panna Chair. It too was conceived by using existing materials in new ways. The Panna Chair, which means cream in Italian, is the evolution of the Pane, or bread, chair, initially shown in 2006 at the Museo della Permanente in Milan. The Pane Chair was named for its unique production method using a mold to literally bake the raw materials in a large oven, hardening and securing their form. Moroso, wanting to create a similar concept but find a more practical means to production, introduced several prototypes in Milan. These prototypes performed similarly in that they molded to the user as he sat in them. They were “dressed” in a puffy white quilted industrial fabric used for carrying precision instruments, pulled over the chair form.
Only twenty of these limited edition prototypes were ever made. They will be shown and available in New York for sale at the Moroso store. And, while Moroso has typically introduced products in Europe, they have chosen New York to launch the final version of the now available Panna Chair. It will be shown at the store in a selection of Maharam fabrics. Maharam will also be featuring a selection of black and white textiles to fit in with the Tokujin theme.
Tokujin Yoshioka was born in Japan in 1967 and, in 2000, after studying at length with Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake, set up Tokujin Yoshioka Design in Tokyo. Working with Issey Miyake for over 20 years, Tokujin has created among many things, the Issey Miyake and A-POC stores and an installation at the Cartier foundation in Paris entitled Issey Miyake Making Things. Tokujin’s oeuvre includes Honey Pop and Tokyo Pop chairs for Driade, a futuristic Japanese garden in the Driade store in Milan, Tofu lamp for Yamagiwa, Stardust chandelier for Swarovski Crystal Palace, shop windows for Hermes and the Toyota stand at the Tokyo car show.
The Pane Chair played a major role at the exhibition Tokujin Yoshioka x Lexus L- Finesse- Evolving Fiber Technology at the Museo della Permanente in Milan, an installation featuring more the 7000km of optical fibers that transformed the space into a giant lens. In the autumn of 2006, he presented a solo exhibition, Tokujin Yoshioka-Super Fiber Revolution at the Axis gallery in Tokyo, while Phaidon concurrently published a monograph of his work. Tokujin’s work is in the permanent collections of the most prestigious museums in the world: MoMA in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Vitra Design Museum and Victoria & Albert.
Moroso, founded over 50 years ago in Udine, Italy, continues to be a major player on the Italian and international design scene. Today, under the direction of Patrizia Moroso, the company maintains an investigative approach to design, collaborating with designers and artists from around the world. Moroso products celebrate the balance between technological innovation and old world craftsmanship. Moroso USA is headquartered at 146 Greene Street in New York City. For national distribution please call 800.705.6863, www.morosousa.com