P10 G THE GLOBE AND MAIL | SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 2019 SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 2019 | THE GLOBE AND MAIL G P11| PURSUITS PURSUITS |

It always begins with a captivating idea. Then, thehusband-and-wife team behind Studio Swinespend months researching a project, often trav-elling to remote locales, before producing high-

conceptwork that speaks to the fragility of theplan-et and our role in helping or hurting it. AlexanderGroves and Azusa Murakami will headline theDesignTO festival in Toronto, which fills the citywith pop-up exhibitions and events from Jan. 18 to27. As part of a keynote talk on Jan. 25, the duo willdiscuss the issue of water scarcity and our laissez-faire attitude to conservation.In the past, engineering marvels such as aque-

ducts and architectural landmarks such as foun-tains delivered water to cities “giving water a sym-bolic significance as a source of life and central tourban life,” says Groves, who met Murakami at theRoyal CollegeofArt inBritain. “Now,where it comesfrom and where it goes is out of sight, out of mind.”Studio Swine’s discipline-crossing designs intend

to change that. In 2013, they produced Sea Chair, afilmabout their journey tomake stools out of oceandebris. And last spring, they unveiled Infinity Blue, a20-tonne sculpture in Britain’s Cornwall countythat pays homage to cyanobacteria, one of the firstand smallest ocean organisms that accounts for 70per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere. The ceramicpiece shoots out scented rings of fog from 32 can-

nons.Other notable works include New

Spring and Fordlandia. The former, fea-tured atMilan DesignWeek in 2017, is asix-metre-tall treemadeoutof recycledaluminum that shoots bubbles that re-lease a delicate mist when they pop.The latter, presented at the LondonCollege of Fashion in 2016, is an instal-lation of furniture made out of materi-als sustainably sourced in the Amazonrain forest, placed in an environmentemulating the utopian city Henry Fordconceptualized in the 1920s.Murakami, an architect, and Groves,

an artist, explainwhy they feel it’s theirduty to approach design with a socialconscience.

How do you decide if you take ona project or commission?

ALEXANDER GROVES: We work a lotwith instinct. There is such a lim-ited amount of time we all haveanyway, and we’re very aware ofour mortality, so why waste lifedoing something you don’t real-ly believe in? With Infinity Blue,for example, we became fasci-nated by cyanobacteria, a prop-erty water has at the molecularlevel that is invisible to thenaked eye, but is [one of] thelargest biomasses on our planet.Weenvisioned it as a fountain forthe atmosphere. Water andoxygen are miraculous thingsandwe try to restorewonder andawe about them.

Studio Swine’s crossover betweenart and design and other dis-ciplines seems so natural.

AG: Essentially, we don’t reallythink about a discipline becausewe just dowhat we’re passionateabout. We’re doingmore immer-sive projects, ones that create akind of feeling or impression.With New Spring, we were in-spired by public fountains in Ita-ly, things of beauty and utilitythat celebrated the life-givingnature of water. We’ve foundover the last few years that ourinstallations are more ephemer-al. With New Spring and InfinityBlue, we used delicate materialslike soap bubbles ormists to cre-ate something that lasts only fora moment, which make it all themore powerful, like the cherryblossoms in Japan that last oneweek each year. Moments intime are more precious.

You love to blur the line betweenobject and image.

AZUSA MURAKAMI: Our workalways tries to create a sense ofan environment or a world thatwe can inhabit. Fordlandia, for in-stance, was about creating a feel-ing. We used the objects we cre-ated to transport us into a differ-

ent world. The end result waslike twoworlds colliding.We cre-ated an imaginary setting, a fan-tasy world, from Ford’s failed ex-periment. The point being to askquestions such as: If it werethriving now,whatwould it havedone? How could things haveended differently?

You’ve been quoted saying thatwhat it means to be a designer ischanging as we speak. How so?

AG: The definition between dif-ferent disciplines is dissolving allthe time. I amalwaysuncomfort-able with generalizations any-way. Mark Twain said all general-izations are false, including thisone. So I don’t think it’s accurateto have a distinction betweenart, science, architecture, fash-ion, et cetera. They’re all mas-sively overlapped. The truly in-teresting thing for us are thosethat are not readily definable.

Do you aim to change people’sperceptions or points of view withyour designs?

AM: Our work is not so muchabout raising awareness of aproblem as it is about posing dif-ferent scenarios or what ifs. Wedon’t attempt to solve problems,but to look at them in differentways.AG:We don’t set out with the in-tention to teach people any-thing. [But] one of the greatestpowers that art has is to effectchange. When we started StudioSwine we were told sustainabil-ity was a really frumpy idea andthat nobodywouldworkwithus.It had a bad image and was thepolar opposite of anything edgyor desirable or beautiful. Overthe last eight years, that percep-tion has changed completely. Ifwe’ve had some small part inthat, then that’s great. We alwayssay sustainability without desireis not sustainable.

This interview has beencondensed and edited.

Watercarriers

The husband-and-wife teambehind Studio Swine has made asplash by making water scarcitya central theme of their work. Asthe duo tells Gayle MacDonald,creating beautiful objects andinstallations is as importantto their cause as advocating

sustainability

SURFACE TENSIONAdozen local and international artists anddesigners showcasework that explores themany dualities of water: its force andmag-ic, lightness and dark, stillness and move-ment. The show engages visitors to thinkaboutwater froma broad point of view, in-cluding topics such as waste, habitat, cli-mate change, access, survival, power andbeauty.Jan. 18 to March 3 at Harbourfront Centre’sArtport Gallery (235 Queens Quay W.).

EXPERIENCES OF AFFORDABILITYSo many forces batter housing affordabil-ity, with income inequality, rapid urban-ization, global warming and geopoliticalfragility at the top of the list. The rapidpace of technology is changing how wethink about home, and this exhibition ex-plores how designers can be at the fore-front of helping to shape a more humaneand inclusive world.Jan. 19 to Jan. 26 at Institute withoutBoundaries (230 Richmond St. E.).

URBAN SENSORIUMSight. Smell. Touch. Sound. Taste. This pro-ject uses the five senses to anticipate whatthe future may hold for five cities (Shang-hai, New York, Los Angeles, San Franciscoand Houston). Taking into considerationfactors such as potential energy, ecology,climate, transit and food scenarios, fieldworkers found New Yorkmight get bright-er, Los Angeles quieter and Shanghai spi-cier.Through to Jan. 26 at Urbanspace Gallery(401 Richmond St. W.).

IDEAS FORUM:WATERSHED TO WATERFRONTThe Ideas Forum features fun and fast-paced presentations of 20 slides that flashevery 20 seconds exploring water and allits facets. The speedy pace is designed toget you guessing and thinking about wa-ter’s relationship with humans and its im-pact on everything from aesthetics, cul-ture, politics, poetry and ecology.Jan. 24 at IBI’s Multipurpose Room(55 St. Clair Ave. W.).

ECO-DESIGN SYMPOSIUMWith the eco-crisis unfolding all aroundus,ecological design has never beenmore im-portant. Architects, engineers, designersand students begin with the premise thateach action we take has a dramatic impacton fragile ecosystems and biodiversity.Participants share examples of how smartand sensitive ecological design can posi-tively and directly intervene.Jan. 19 at the Bakery (2 Fraser Ave.).– G.M.

For more information, visit designto.org.

Impactstudies

Studio Swine isn’t the onlyfirm thinking about design

beyond floor plans and paintchips. These DesignTO showsexplore the discipline’s impacton everything from housingaffordability to future cities

Studio Swine’s InfinityBlue (2018 ceramics,steel, robotics, fog,scent), Fordlandia (2016Lounge Chair, StandingLight, Tapper KnifeandBowl) and New Spring(installation view at theCinema Arti, Milan2017). IMAGES COURTESYOF STUDIO SWINE.

Alexander Grovesand Azusa Murakamiof Studio Swine.COURTESY OF STUDIO SWINE

he’s taking after people such as Martha Stewart, who tran-scended her original, homemaking genre to become a fully-fledged lifestyle brand. “I’ve watched her since I was a littlekid,” he says. “I got her first book. I’m inspired by how she’sbuilt her empire.”Pivot or otherwise, trying tomove into a new space can be

risky and often falls flat (does anyone remember TyraBanks’s music career?). But whatmight set Posen up for suc-cess in his new ventures is that “they are authentic to him,”saysNatashaKoifman, aTorontoandNewYork-basedbrand-ing, communications expert and Posen devotee. According

to Koifman, the pitfalls of branching out “usu-ally involve doing brand deals for the sake ofbrand deals [i.e., money]. But Zac genuinelyloves cooking. It’s all over his Instagram.”Beyond socialmedia, oneof Posen’s personal

friends, Canadian philanthropist Suzanne Rog-ers, vouches for the legitimate interest. “Zac’sdynamic flair isn’t only reflected inhis remarka-ble designs but also in his culinary skills,” shesays. “Whether in his studio or his kitchen, it iswonderful fun watching him express his tre-mendous creativity.”To Posen, whowill be in Toronto showcasing

his work with Monogram at the Interior DesignShow’s opening night party, on Jan. 17, the com-mon denominator between food and fashion isthat he does both largely by hand (and, in fact,that’s why he agreed to work with Monogram:they hand-finish their appliances). “Beinghands-on is so important,” Posen says. “I be-

lieve that what you put into a product emotionally actuallyextends into the final product and into the use by the con-sumer. They feel it when they put on the clothing, or, if it’s anoven or a fridge, it comes through to what they cook. … Notthat the products always have full souls or character. But Ihonestly believe it makes a difference.”In a world built for speed, that commitment to detail and

craft mightmean Posen’s expansion into lifestyle takes time(his cookbook was close to three years in themaking). But ifhis cookies are any indication, it will be worth the wait.Browning the butter and placing each chocolate chip tookforever. But eating the nutty, sweet goodness was such an in-effable pleasure, I’ve made the recipe several times since.

Special to The Globe and Mail

Zacattack

Designer Zac Posen has made his mark infashion with his glamorous eveningwear.Now, as Matthew Hague reports, the NewYorker – and Interior Design Show guest –has set his sights on lifestyle guru status

Zac Posen pays a lot of attention to detail. I know thisnot from the fashion designs that brought the 38-year-old New Yorker fame, although he does craft beauti-fully nuanced dresses for the likes of actors Claire

Danes, Uma Thurman and a myriad other women who walkthe red carpet at glitzy events such as the annual Met Galaand the Academy Awards. Instead, I gleaned his commit-ment to precisionwhen I tried to follow the recipe for choco-late chip cookies from his debut cookbook, Cooking with Zac.The first clue to his particularity was that I was instructed

tobrown thebutter in apanuntil it looked like “deepmahog-any with a hazelnut scent,” a necessary extra step, Posenwrote, because “with so many cookies in the world, it’s thefine touches that count.” The second indication was that Ihad to hand-press the chips into the top of the dough toachieve “a polished andprofessional look.” Clearly, this is nota treat for a lazy baker.I made the cookies as a test. I had recently met Posen at a

food and wine festival in Newport, R.I. The event was held atMarble House, a Gilded Age mansion decked out in enoughgold leaf to make Donald Trump blush (it was built aftersome of the Vanderbilt family travelled to Ver-sailles and decided they’d like an equally opu-lent abode). And I was surprised to see that Po-sen was headlining the event, not only promot-ing the cookbook but also a new fridge doorproduced by luxury appliance brand Mono-gram (the aspirational appliance, fabricatedfrom mirror-polished, charcoal-coloured steeland etched with lines that look like draped fab-ric, is an interior-design equivalent to fashion’shaute couture; it’s not for sale at any retailstores but is meant to inspire decorators tocome up with their own creative custom panel-ling).It all made me wonder: Does someone who

works in an industry that often seems antithet-ical to food actually know anything about cui-sine? Not to suggest that skinny people such asPosen, who was looking trim in a hand-tailoredBrooks Brothers suit, don’t know how to cook,but there was a cynical part of me that thought: He’s just leftProject Runway and fashion can be intensely fickle (as out-lined in the 2017 doc about him, House of Z, which showedhow he was a fashion do one minute, a fashion don’t thenext), somaybe he’s trying to capitalize on the celebrity-cheftrend as a career Plan B?But later in the day, when I got a fewminutes to chat with

him after he signed about a trillion autographs and ran akung pao shrimp cooking demo, he quickly clarified thatfashionpeoplenotonly eat, but eat – gasp! – carbs. “There aremany supermodels that I know– Imean, Naomi [Campbell],Heidi [Klum] – who can eat pizza,” he says. “But they alsowork out, so it’s all moderation and balance.”He also clarified that his kitchen conquests are less about

pivoting,more about speaking to abroader audience. Inpart,

Zac Posen isn’t the only multi-hyphenate poised to make asplash at this year’s Interior De-sign Show (IDS), which runsfrom Jan. 17 to 20 in Toronto.Ahmir Khalib Thompson (bet-ter known as Questlove), thedrummer, DJ, producer andmusical director for The Tonight

Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, will headline The Globe and Mail’s Jan. 19 pro-gramming with a talk that coincides with the launch of his latest endeavour,Creative House. Thompson, who penned the culinary interview compendi-um Something to Food About in 2016 and recently worked with housewaresretailer Williams-Sonoma on a collection of gourmet popcorn seasoningsand accessories, is part of a generation that’s breaking down the walls be-tween creative disciplines through constant collaboration. Creative Houseaims to bring together those diverse voices to develop products and experi-ences. At IDS, Globe lifestyle editor Maryam Siddiqi will moderate a discus-sion between him and his Creative House business partner Adam Sandowand Questlove will be on site after the chat to sign copies of his bestsellingbook, Creative Quest. For more information, visit interiordesignshow.com.– ANDREW SARDONEMICHAEL BACA

Zac Posen and Monogramhave teamed up to‘elevate everything.’COURTESY OF MONOGRAM

Anothercreativechameleon

PHOTOS FROM TOP: PHOTO COURTESY OF UNITLAB, INSTITUTE WITHOUT BOUNDARIES, XL LAB,LUCAS MURNAGHAN, ROB AND MICHELLE AVIS

“I believe thatwhat you putinto a productemotionally

actually extendsinto the final

product and intothe use by theconsumer.

ZAC POSEN

DESIGN WEEK

Product: TGAM PubDate: 01-12-2019 Zone: GTA Edition: 1 Page: PURSUITS_2628499 User: SLaloudakis Time: 01-07-2019 16:33 Color: CMYK