Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio

Me (left) and my two roommates outside of the
Hammer Museum, sporting our entrance stickers

The exhibit “Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio” at the Hammer Museum featured many unique works of art created by designer Thomas Heatherwick. While his constructions were beautiful, as the included pictures demonstrate, I was most taken with his inspiration for the art, which incorporates the two worlds of art and science. This comes across most obviously by way of the question asked next to the title for each piece. 

"Can a rotationally symmetrical form make a comfortable chair?"
I don't know about comfortable, but the chair was certainly fun! 

Instead of simply posting names for his artwork, Heatherwick also poses a question that each piece seeks to answer. “Can you squeeze a chair out of a machine, the way you squeeze toothpaste out of a tube?”, “Can a rotationally symmetrical form make a comfortable chair?”, “How can a big new development relate to its surroundings?” In so doing, Heatherwick transforms every piece into not just something beautiful to admire, but also a solution. This idea was applied not only to small objects, such as handbags, but also to larger projects as well, like the idea for the Learning Hub building in Singapore (pictured below). 

Learning Hub building, Singapore.
"Can a building help change the way we learn?"

As an observer, this peaked my interest. The titles left me wondering: which came first, the question or the idea? Perhaps he looked at a tube of toothpaste and wondered whether or not a chair-like construction could come out of it. Or perhaps Heatherwick came up with the design for the Learning Hub and then realized it could change the way students learned. This way of thinking inspired me to look at the more mundane things in my life in search of beauty—can vehicles be designed differently to be more environmentally friendly? Can the clothing I’m wearing have some health benefit to me? 

Extrusions: "Can you squeeze a chair out of a machine,
            the way you squeeze toothpaste out of a tube?" 

It is interesting too that the answer to all of the questions he poses is yes. I think it would make for a fascinating future display for Heatherwick to include any of his failed attempts, if he has any. For the answers to his questions to be no, and for the audience to be able to see what he did with that piece and in which direction this led him would be an enriching art exhibit. I learned quite a bit from Heatherwick’s display, and I left still thinking about the implications of his art, which is how you can tell his art is impactful.