Exhibit features sustainable materials

01/23/2012

Written by Jonathan Reid

The natural environment of the Desert Botanical Garden is the perfect backdrop for Design for a Living World.

The exhibit, which has already had successful showings in New York City and Chicago, features 10 renowned designers of furniture, clothing, jewelry and other items using sustainable materials. It will be at the Garden through March.

Pat Graham, state director of the Nature Conservancy, which commissioned Design for a Living World, described the project’s goal as a way to “help people think about the relationship between the products we buy and the impact that has on our natural environment.”

Designers for the project include Ted Muehling, Stephen Burks, Yves Behar, Abbott Miller, Paulina Reyes, Isaac Mizrahi, Hella Jongerius, Christien Meindertsma, Ezri Tarazi and Maya Lin.

Each designer was assigned a specific sustainable material from a conservation environment with which to work. Then using their assigned materials they did what designers do best – create. The sustainable materials are from conservation sites in Micronesia, Australia, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Alaska, Mexico, Idaho, China and Maine.

Two of the designers, Ezri Tarazi and Paulina Reyes, attended the opening of the exhibit in Phoenix.

Tarazi, who flew to Phoenix from his home in Israel for the opening, worked with bamboo from China’s Yunnan Province.

“The concept was to envision. You never do advertisements for materials,” Tarazi said. “My project was to advertise the qualities of bamboo.”

Tarazi used the bamboo poles as a “metaphor for a living room that is like a bamboo forest.” The poles were used to create furniture and stereo speakers

“The first concept was that a person would have everything they need in the living room on top of poles,” he said.

Bamboo is one of the most sustainable plants on earth because it grows very quickly. According to Tarazi, the bamboo he used can grow up to 4 feet a day and can reach a height of 40 feet.

“I really believe that the human race needs to get a kind of positive approach to sustainability,” Tarazi said. “If people will be much more aware about bamboo for example . . . using their floors from bamboo instead of wood, it could really change the burden of the human race on forests.”

Fashion designer Paulina Reyes of Kate Spade New York visited the indigenous communities in Bolivia that use the sustainable materials she was assigned. While there, she worked with the local people to learn their techniques for using wood and jipijapa, a fiber from palm leaves. The result was handbags that blend traditional and modern designs to create something new.

“It was really interesting because (the local craftspeople) are so used to producing the same products over and over again that this (project) . . . really challenged their kind of thinking in a way,” Reyes said.

Also at the opening was Amy Vitale, an award-winning photographer, who chronicled the project by visiting all the conservation areas where the materials are sourced.

“You don’t necessarily have to deplete the resources of a place,” Vitale said. “So through sustainability and the choices we make how we harvest resources . . . you can actually help a community.”

The other designers’ results were just as interesting, all of which are on display at the exhibit.

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi created shoes and a dress using salmon skin from southwest Alaska. In Pohnpei, Micronesia, jewelry-maker Abbott Miller studied the local craftspeople who have been carving with vegetable ivory, a material made from the seeds of palm trees, for hundreds of years. Using vegetable ivory and black pearls, Miller created a collection of jewelry that includes earrings and a necklace.

Admission to Design for a Living World is $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, $10 for students with ID, $8 for children of 3-12 years-of-age. For Garden members and children under 2, admission is free.

For more information visit dbg.org.