Two contemplative installations that conjure up questions about water and geology are now on view in Milan.
The Google Design Studio is trying to make a splash at Salon del Mobile with “Shaped by Water.”
The exhibition was cooked up by Google’s vice president of hardware design Ivy Ross, and her design team with artist Lachlan Turczan, who specializes in water, light and sound. The Los Angeles-based artist crafts light artworks, kinetic sculptures and films, including ones that explore natural phenomena and the visualization of sound. Over the past 10 years, he has been developing a water-projection artwork that is meant to relay a similar effect as gazing into a fire or staring up at the clouds.
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Turczan has created installations on some prime real estate, such as one in the Dubai International Airport and Singapore Changi Airport. The multidisciplinary creative executes his installations with the help of engineers, designers and musicians.
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On view through Sunday at Garage 21, “Shaped by Water” is meant to be an immersive, multisensory experience that draws attention to humanity’s connection to water and how it can be a source of inspiration for design.
Like Google, which canvasses the globe, water also covers much of the planet — 71 percent in total. It also makes up 60 percent of the human body, and one in every four people do not have access to clean drinking water, according to the United Nations.
The first part of the exhibition, “Sympathetic Resonance,” showcases about a dozen mirrored cylinder-like sculptures that are slightly filled with water and are meant to relax visitors and focus on the sound. Another area “Wavespace,” as its name implies, relies on the vibrational energy from music to lull a pool of water into “choreographed” waves that turn the body of water into a kinetic liquid lens.
Visitors are prompted to take a seat and unwind, as music timed with cymatics create wave patterns that are reflected onto large overhead discs that show the mini ripples below.
On what sounds like an exit-through-the-gift-shop approach to art, visitors’ final stop involves taking a closer look at water and in how it inspired Google’s hardware goods that will be on display. The aim is for “Shaped by Water” to prompt conversations about thoughtful design.
The unveiling signaled Google Design Studio’s third trip to Milan Design Week. Its last appearance was in 2019 with a neuroaesthetics installation titled “A Space for Being.”
Another installation at the latest edition of Salon del Mobile to note is “Beyond the Surface.” SolidNature commissioned architecture studio OMA to design an installation that traces natural stone from its geological formation to a finished product. The two-part exhibition has a subterranean and open-air sections.
Upon entering the space in the 19th-century Casa Maveri in the Brera District, visitors pass through a series of underground rooms that show how stone is formed, extracted and processed. They then continue to the al fresco area where stone furniture adorns the palazzo’s garden, which has been designed by select artists. Unlike the slabs of stone seen in the basement, the stone furniture in the garden is being used for different activities during Milan Design Week. To get between the two areas, guests pass through a sky-blue onyx passageway that has a multicolored marble staircase.