During Dutch Design Week 2023 Alexandre Delasalle’s collection of wooden furniture shaped a curious living room – an installation gathering a selection of pieces from the Plush Garden Dining Room Series to create a botanical paradise.
Berries and Flowers Table (Dining Room series) — © Picture by Augustin Puzio (2023).
Canon Arizona
In april of this year, Canon Europe and Kohlschein organized a group exhibition. They invited Alexandre together with 13 other emerging designers to produce an ensemble of pieces using Canon’s Arizona printer on Kohlschein’s recycled materials. Alexandre’s outcome, the Paper Furniture series, resemble scaled-up paper models, like cutouts from a child’s magazine. Dressing Table, Console, Mirror, and Chandeliers mimic the 17th-century romantic imagery of opulence. They give the image of interior design as an inviting space for role-play and comedy.
LTR: Berries Dressing Table, Berries Lamp, Berries Mirror (Paper Furniture series, in collaboration with Canon Europe and Kohlschein) & Process (Making of the Flowers Chair and Grass Stools (Dining Room series) on Canon Arizona flatbed printer.
Visual language
Alexandre Delasalle associates playful patterns with furniture of exaggerated, cartoon-like forms – blending visual elements inspired by children’s dollhouses, biophilic design, 17th-century home decor, video games, and public kindergartens to create a twisted botanical haven.
Cute flora
The Plush Garden series explores the connection between images of nature and depictions of cuteness, as they are known to cause similar hormonal responses by viewers. Each piece examines the potential of the non-threatening, cartoonish representations of nature commonly found in popular visual culture to serve as a virtual source of comfort in our contemporary surroundings.
Grass Stools (Dining Room series) — © Picture by Augustin Puzio (2023).
Popular culture
Images of nature, such as printed pictures, sculptures, and ornaments, are ubiquitous in the human environment, triggering strong, positive hormonal reactions. According to Hiroshi Nittono and Namiha Ihara in their study “Psychophysiological Responses to Kawaii Pictures with or without Baby Schema,” similar principles apply to people exposed to cute or “kawaii” images.
There is a growing trend in popular culture of comforting depictions of harmless ecosystems, and this formal vocabulary may be a new instrument for well-being in domestic spaces.
Flowers Chair (Dining Room series) — © Picture by Augustin Puzio (2023).
About Alexandre Delasalle
Drawing inspiration from diverse sources within popular culture, Alexandre Delasalle has developed a visually compelling design approach. He specializes in blending, mimicking, and repurposing references to investigate and debate current aesthetic standards.
His practice explores themes such as the representations of nature and cuteness, the appropriation of mainstream icons by amateur communities, and the narratives that target younger generations through mass media.
About Dutch Design Week
In October of each year, Dutch Design Week (DDW) takes place in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. One of the biggest design events in Europe presents work and ideas of more than 2600 designers to more than 350,000 visitors from home and abroad. In more than 110 locations across the city, DDW organizes and facilitates exhibitions, lectures, prize ceremonies, networking events, debates and festivities.
Although during the event every imaginable discipline and aspect of design is on offer, the emphasis is on experiment, innovation and cross-overs. Exceptional attention each year goes to work and development of young talent.
DDW concentrates on the design of the future and the future of design. It is their objective to show how designers from around the world shape a positive future and to strengthen the position and meaning of Dutch designers.
Published 23rd Nov 2023
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