Boym Partners
FORM FOLLOWS PROVOCATION
Constantin Boym born in Moscow, Russia
Laurene Leon Boym born in New York, New York
Both work in New York, New York
If there is a consistent message in the idiosyncratic designs that emerge from Boym Partners, it is the message of salvation. From re-purposing metaphors and materials to resurrecting cultural icons, husband-and-wife team Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym sift through the American cultural landscape for their inspiration. Their mission: to rescue obscure objects and products and usher them into the foreground of design discourse.
For their Salvation ceramics pieces included in Manuf®actured, the Boyms found inspiration in the hodgepodge selection of dishes in Salvation Army thrift stores, antique shops, and garage sales. They purchased a variety of orphan dishes and arranged them in a lively mix, both upside down and right-side up like vertical still-life sculptures. Just as conceptual artist Sol LeWitt wrote instructions for making drawings and sculptures (rather than making the pieces himself), the Salvation project was a formula for object making that could be executed by others nearly anywhere across the globe. Each piece is assembled according to a set sum of parts, but due to the vastly different components, each stack retains its own individual character.
Like many of the Boyms’ design projects, Salvation was based on a series of investigations into the possibilities of materials, strategies for making, and the meanings of the objects themselves. The results have led to an expanded definition of beauty and function that embrace the quirky, the ubiquitous, and the “undesigned,” giving new life to the discarded remains of our object-rich consumer culture.
WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
Boym Partners, Salvation ceramics, 2000–02;
Porcelain and
stoneware dishes, Extreme Adhesive System medical glue;
Courtesy of Limn Design Store, San Francisco
