Innovative or tasteless?
This time, our sculptures of the month should be viewed critically: Richard Yasmine, designer from Beirut, created vase shapes that mimic different types of bombs in appearance and sound – with the aim of evoking joy and pleasure.
Vases are an extremely useful invention – at least if you intend to place flowers in them decoratively. However, the latest design idea by Richard Yasmine from Beirut makes you wish they had never been invented. Because Yasmine turns them into objects for dealing with war. At least that is what he would like to achieve with “Wanda” (22 x 10.5 x 10.5 cm), “Rapunza” (40 x 8.5 x 8.5 cm) and “Herma” (30 x 13 x 13 cm). These pretty names are given to three vase objects whose task, according to the advertising, is to overcome the terrible reality of war in the world with humor. This may not be the most common concept, but it is an effective one – if it is cleverly considered and skillfully implemented. If.
At Yasmine, the implementation looks like this: The vases, which are made of white Carrara marble from Italy, black Marquina marble from Spain and pink marble from Portugal combined with brass, have been given a lid. When the lid is removed, there is a bang, like a bomb. According to the advertising text for the objects, this creates a surprise that is intended to evoke joy and pleasure.
The advertising does not reveal who exactly is supposed to have the nightmare of mass death and destruction eradicated by the sound of a bomb in their living room. It may be that traumatic experiences can be processed with humor and jokes. Confrontation therapies are also said to be effective. However, it is doubtful whether such therapeutic approaches fall within the competence of a designer.
Yasmine himself describes his design approach as “simple, cheeky, straightforward, with a touch of fantasy”. Unfortunately, the word cynicism does not appear in this description. However, it is the only one that seems somehow appropriate to the idea that, for example, a refugee whose house is in ruins is harassed by the noise of bombs when he opens a vase.
Surely these tasteless vase bombs will still find their buyers. They are also known to find lighters in the shape of dummy pistols.