{"id":223884,"date":"2024-03-18T09:48:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T13:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_news&p=223884"},"modified":"2024-03-28T11:02:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T15:02:36","slug":"darrin-alfred-denver-art-museum-curator-biophilia-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/darrin-alfred-denver-art-museum-curator-biophilia-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"Architectural Curator Darrin Alfred Reflects on the Natural World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
Incorporating frogs, finches, snakes, meerkats, and other fauna and flora, Los Angeles designer David Wiseman\u2019s Midnight in the Meadow wallpaper from 2023. Photography courtesy of Wiseman Studio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

March 18, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Peter Webster<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Architectural Curator Darrin Alfred Reflects on the Natural World<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

As a young graduate with a bachelor\u2019s in architectural studies from the University of Pittsburgh and a master\u2019s in landscape architecture from the University of Colorado Denver, Darrin Alfred soon discovered professional practice wasn\u2019t for him. \u201cI wanted something I was more passionate about,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSo, I got a job as a curatorial associate at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,\u201d initially working on architecture, design, and digital projects under innovative curator Aaron Betsky. It proved a perfect fit, and he\u2019s been involved with museums ever since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, Alfred joined the Denver Art Museum<\/a>, where he now heads the architecture and design department. It boasts the museum\u2019s largest collection\u2014more than 18,000 objects dating from the 16th century to the present, including the encyclopedic AIGA design archives\u2014displayed since 2020 in dazzling OMA-renovated galleries in the iconic Martin Building by Gio Ponti. But it\u2019s Studio Libeskind\u2019s titanium-clad Hamilton Building that will host Alfred\u2019s upcoming summer blockbuster, \u201cBiophilia: Nature Reimagined,\u201d a multisensory exhibition comprising more than 70 works, including architectural models and photographs, objects, furniture, fashion, digital installations, and immersive art environments that collectively address the transformative power of nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe show isn\u2019t about biophilic design, per se,\u201d Alfred is quick to explain. \u201cIt\u2019s more about our enduring emotional, psychological, and spiritual connections to the natural world.\u201d Featuring an international roster of designers, architects, and artists\u2014Iris van Herpen, Studio Gang, Zaha Hadid, Joris Laarman, Avram Rusu and DRIFT, to name a few\u2014\u201cBiophilia\u201d will be organized around three themes reflecting aspects of nature that most influence our well-being: Natural Analogs: Form and Pattern; Natural Systems: Processes and Phenomena; and Topophilia: People and Place. We spoke to Alfred about the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Headshot
Darrin Alfred, the organizer of the show, and DAM\u2019s curator of architecture and design, backdropped by ceramic reproductions of the faceted glass tiles Gio Ponti originally designed to clad the museum\u2019s Martin Building, which dates to 1971. Photography by Eric Stephenson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Reflect On Nature With Darrin Alfred<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"dark
Meadow<\/em>, a 2017 site-specific kinetic installation by the Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary studio DRIFT, part of \u201cBiophilia: Nature Reimagined,\u201d an exhibition running May 5 through August 11 at the Denver Art Museum. Photography by Oriol Tarridas\/Courtesy of Superblue Miami.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interior Design: What was the genesis of \u201cBiophilia?\u201d\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Darrin Alfred: With my landscape background, and having lived for 16 years in Colorado, I was interested in the deep connection people here feel for the outdoors. I see it in California, too, but I don\u2019t think we necessarily understand where this passion comes from or why we have an enduring bond with the natural world. I began noticing work that addressed the environment\u2014the greening of design\u2014but also did more than that by exploring how nature affects our physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual development, individually and collectively. Around 2016, I pitched the idea of a show underscoring the transformative role in contemporary designers, architects, and artists can play in rekindling this bond. It got pushed aside by other projects, the new galleries, and then COVID, but everything started to solidify about two years ago, and here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID: How would you characterize these types of work in general?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

DA: Works that call us to heighten our senses, to observe the natural world more closely. They offer moments of quiet catharsis that allow us to slow down amidst the hyper-accelerated digital lives we all live today. In looking for works that really do that, we developed three themes or lenses to help bring them into focus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"white
Still under construction in downtown Denver, Studio Gang\u2019s Populus hotel, its fluted form and distinctive window patterns evoking a grove of aspen trees. Photography by Studio Gang.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ID: What\u2019s the first theme and what pieces in the show represent it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

DA: Natural Analogs, which relates to the shapes, structures, and geometries found in nature\u2014the spirals, honeycombs, and dendritic patterns that our brains have developed an affinity for. A good example is the Floraform Chandelier by the Palenville, New York, studio Nervous System, which translates the cellular growth patterns of leaves and petals using complex algorithms and 3-D printing to fabricate a nylon hanging light that casts intricate shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID: What\u2019s the second category?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

DA: Natural Systems, which explores nature\u2019s dynamic processes\u2014seasonal and temporal changes such as weather patterns and botanical growth cycles. These works are more immersive and multi-sensory, like Meadow<\/em> by Amsterdam studio DRIFT<\/a>; it\u2019s a kinetic sculpture of oversize mechanical silk flowers that mimics the nyctinastic opening and closing of blossoms in a choreographed sequence. Or the international art collective teamLab\u2019s Flowers and People<\/em>, an interactive digital installation with a meditative soundtrack that presents a year\u2019s worth of computer-generated seasonal flowers blooming and withering over the course of an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"digital
Flowers and People\u2013A Whole Year per Hour<\/em>, 2020, art collective teamLab\u2019s interactive digital installation compressing the life cycles of seasonal blossoms into 60 minutes. Photography courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ID: You\u2019ve dubbed the final theme Topophilia. What\u2019s that?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

DA: It delves into the emotional and spiritual connection that humanity has with the physical environment through works that highlight the interplay between people and nature, culture and place. Desert Paper<\/em>\u2014a collaboration between Aranda\\Lasch, which works out of New York and Tucson, Arizona, and Terrol Dew Johnson, an artist, basket weaver, and member of the Tohono O\u2019odham Nation in Southwestern Arizona\u2014is a series of experimental vessels incorporating natural materials Johnson gathered in the Sonoran Desert. Here in downtown Denver, the Populus hotel by Studio Gang takes its name from the Latin for quaking aspen<\/em>, an instantly recognizable symbol of Colorado. The 13-story scalloped facade evokes a stand of the trees while the distinctive window shapes resemble bark patterns on their trunks. It\u2019s under construction but should open around the same time as the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"different
Czech artist David Valner\u2019s Fungus vases and Polypore bowl, 2018-22, handcrafted glass vessels inspired by mushrooms and toadstools. Photography by Tereza Valnerova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Incorporating frogs, finches, snakes, meerkats, and other fauna and flora, Los Angeles designer David Wiseman\u2019s Midnight in the Meadow wallpaper from 2023. Photography courtesy of Wiseman Studio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"reddish
Almost 12 feet tall, One-seater Concrete Tree<\/em>, 2022, a metal-mesh, cork, steel, and concrete sculpture by Netherlands-based Nacho Carbonell, evoking memories of his childhood in Valencia, Spain. Photography by Ronald Smiths\/Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"black
Festooned with pineconelike spirals, California-based ceramist Brad Miller\u2019s 13-inch-diameter stoneware plate from 2019-23. Photography by Alex Delapena.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"person
Comprising countless injected-polyamide modular elements, the weblike Algues screen, a seminal 2004 design for Vitra by French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Photography by Paul Tahon, R. Bouroullec, E. Bouroullec.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"hanging
The Floraform Chandelier, 2017, a hanging light made of 3-D printed nylon by Nervous System. Photography courtesy of Nervous System.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"model
Resembling circular leaves floating on water, the hand-pleated organdy Lily dress from New York fashion collective threeASFOUR\u2019s spring\/summer 2020 Human Plant collection. Photography by Randy Brooke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"brown
A 2022 collaboration between Aranda\\Lasch design studio and basket weaver Terrol Dew Johnson, Desert Paper 09, a creosote and jute sculptural vessel incorporating materials from the Sonoran Desert. Photography courtesy of Volume Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"chair-like
Dutch designer Joris Laarman\u2019s 2014 Microstructures Adaptation Chair (Long Cell) Prototype<\/em>, a plantlike structure of 3-D printed polyamide and copper. Photography by Joris Laarman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"bronze
Hand-sculpted in painted cast-cotton paper and patinated steel, lush banana-plant fronds form the 8-foot-tall Nana Lure chandelier, 2021, by Brooklyn, New York, studio Pelle. Photography courtesy of Pelle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n