Objects of desire
Inside a Sheung Wan art gallery, thousands of US bank notes hang on the wall folded like origami into a circle. Two metal spears radiate from the centre. On the ground below, a gleaming chunk of aluminium rests on a pedestal. Though this sounds like a contemporary art installation - and the price tags are comparable - the former is a wall clock and the latter a chair. Design maverick Michael Young unveiled these limited-edition works as part of his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong earlier this summer.
Hailed as Britain's most inspiring designer in 1997 by Terence Conran, Young's furniture has been making waves since his student days. Months after graduating, his Woven Steel lamps were acquired by the Centre Pompidou and the Louvre museum catapulting him to international fame. Today his work is exhibited worldwide and regularly appears at auction. In 2010, his Chinese Times Clock, from the same series as the USD money clock, sold for US$195,000 approximately double its estimate at the Vienna auction house Dorotheum.
Young, 45, is part of a growing breed of designers who are pushing the boundaries of furniture making. Creating highly aesthetic objects in limited editions, their work is often dubbed as 'design art'. In recent years an increasing number of gallerists have turned their attention toward these visually seductive objects. Instead of conventional paintings and sculptures, they are making room for upscale furniture. Fuelling the demand is a global collector base recognising the value of contemporary design. Among the most prominent adherents are billionaires Francois Pinault and Bernard Arnault.
'During the last 15 years there has been immense growth in the market appreciation of progressive design, encompassing not only furniture, but also lighting, metalwork, glass and ceramics,' says Christie's London senior specialist in decorative arts and design, Simon Andrews. The demand for design art in particular began to escalate in 2003. The market reached fever pitch in 2007 when the futuristic Pod of Drawers cabinet by the Australian designer Marc Newson sold for a record price of US$1.05 million at a Christie's auction.
In Hong Kong, however, contemporary design has a limited presence in the art scene. 'Ben Brown did a show with Ron Arad but otherwise the closest you get to being creative in furniture are stores like G.O.D,' observes Young. The exhibition of Arad's furniture in 2009 was the first major presentation of an industrial designer prior to Young's show.
Young waited for years before agreeing to a local exhibition. 'There was nowhere that was an international platform to actually do this. I wasn't going to show it in a shopping mall. I wanted people who were interested in media or design to gather,' he says. Only after The Cat Street Gallery opened its second venue The Space, a 4,000 square foot converted warehouse, did Young see scope for an exhibition in Hong Kong. The owner of the gallery, Mandy d'Abo, leapt at the opportunity to show his work. 'Michael is a true visionary. He saw the opportunities for design in Hong Kong years ago, something a lot of other European designers are only catching on to now,' she says.