Studio Job MAD HOUSE was the first American solo exhibition of the work of Studio Job

The commitment to craftsmanship reflects an ongoing interest in the revival of traditional applied arts practices, such as bronze casting, gilding, marquetry, stained glass, and faience, but with a contemporary approach. The atelier operates in the manner of an Old Master artist studio by engaging the skills of the most talented artisans in the production of their work.

Wallpaper Magazine Says…

Walking into the the fourth floor of New York’s Museum of Arts and Design, you might think you’ve entered some kind of overly opulent funhouse – and you wouldn’t be too far off.

Characterised by pattern, humour and somewhat excessive ornamentation, the work of Studio Job is in full force for this latest exhibition; from a 12-foot tall clock featuring a cast-bronze King Kong dripping in 120,000 Swarovski crystals to a table of gold-gilded banana lamps. A mixture of special commissions and self-initiated works, pieces are presented as if they were arranged in the home of an art collector, referencing themes of arts patronage, collecting and display.

‘This is the first time we’ve had a museum exhibition where the works were not organised in chronological order,’ Smeets says, ‘you can literally see a 2015 piece next to a 2000 piece, so you can see how we lost our naiveté… or how it got worse.’

Adding to the feeling of wandering around someone’s home, Smeets and Tynagel used custom wallpaper and floor coverings (named ’Wall’ and ’Floor’, respectively) to mimic archetypical cement brick walls and an oak parquet floor.

‘Part of what Studio Job wanted to impart is that people can have their own experience about collecting, about domesticity,’ says Ronald T Labaco, the Museum of Arts and Design’s Marcia Docter senior curator. ’The works are in very general groupings, so visitors can draw their own conclusions.’

’Studio Job MAD HOUSE’ acts a defacto culmination in Studio Job’s trend for curating exhibitions of their own work dating back to 2009’s ’Studio Job Gallery’, and 2011’s ’Studio Job Lounge’ and ’Studio Job House’.

The museum of arts and design hosts 57 pieces by design collaborators Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job — four of which make their debut at the exhibition. ‘MAD house’ is the first solo museum show in the US dedicated to the atelier, and emphasises the elements of history, fantasy and irony that studio job has become best known for.

Two floors of the New York-based museum are transformed into an immersive design experience, featuring sculpture, lighting, furniture, floor coverings, wallpaper, drawings, and other objects created over the past 16 years.

‘for us, creation is more important than discipline,’ Job Smeets says, ‘and with purpose and precision, we’re situating decorative arts within the twenty-first century. unlike most designers working today, we’re not coming from modernism,’ said Smeets, ‘our contribution is that we’ve recovered a lost path. is that design? is that art? I’m not sure.’

 

Presented as if featured in a collector’s home, the pieces are organized by narrative rather than chronology. The exhibition highlights Studio Job’s expressive and opulent body of work, which combines ornamentation and monumentality with personal and sociocultural fictions. the pieces making their international debut include works like ‘Sex Cake Table Lamp’ and ‘Sinking Ship Table’, alongside sketches and full-scale color drawings that document the creative process. Additionally, four private commissions are shown publicly for the first time: the cast bronze ‘Pitchfork and Shovel’, stained glass ‘Heart’ and ‘Rr. Crützen Illuminator’, and ‘Unity Cabinet’ in marquetry.

Finally, the designers have created a sound piece made in the spirit of an audio tour for a private art collection. In it, the studio play the role of art collectors who have acquired these works, recounting both real and imagined stories behind each object that speculate on the artists’ possible intent.

‘Studio Job stands as one of the most distinctive contemporary design studios today,’ says Ronald T. Labaco, MAD’s Marcia Docter Senior Curator. ‘Their exhibition concept organizes their work in loose, sometimes contradictory groupings around ideas such as love/lust, agrarian/preindustrial, and church/religion. These fluid categories underscore Studio Job’s desire for visitors to bring their own interpretation and personal experience to the artwork on view, in effect creating a metamodern dialogue rooted in engagement and storytelling.’

 

Designboom, March 2016

Pipe, 2015
This work will make its international debut with the MAD exhibition. In homage to compatriot René Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe), Studio Job’s cast bronze sculpture plays with the same idea, that all visual representations are inherently abstract; it is neither a table nor a pipe.

Train Crash, 2015
In Train Crash two cast bronze locomotives collide head-on, producing clouds of billowing smoke that merge to create a tabletop. This narrative falls in the autobiographical realm of Studio Job’s oeuvre; in June 2015 the design duo publicly announced the end of their long-term romantic relationship with the unveiling of this piece, which simultaneously underscores their continuing work partnership.

“Unlike most designers working today, we’re not coming from modernism,” said Smeets. “Our contribution is that we’ve recovered a lost path. Is that design? Is that art? I’m not sure. For us, creation is more important than discipline, and with purpose and precision, we’re situating decorative arts within the twenty-first century.”

Burj Khalifa from “Landmark,” 2009–14
Over 12 feet tall, this clock features a cast bronze King Kong, covered with 120,000 Swarovski crystals, scaling a silver-leafed Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, in Dubai, as it projects from a cast bronze Petra, the ancient city in Jordan. As Smeets explained, “Architectural delights sprout from the rich culture of the Middle East. One ancient, one contemporary, but equally important, man-made, worshipped, world wonders …”

Piece for Peace, 2010
Piece for Peace was commissioned as the centerpiece for the administrative office of the first President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, who also formerly served as Prime Minister of Belgium. The applied-arts past meets the design present in this collaboration with Belgian glass and crystal factory Val Saint Lambert (established in 1826), which combines hand-cut crystal with Studio Job’s trademark polished bronze elements, transforming a traditional presentation cup into a coffeepot topped with a hand peace-sign finial.

Pyramid from “Pyramids of Makkum” for Royal Tichelaar Makkum, 2008
In Studio Job’s contemporary interpretation of a 17th-century delftware flower pyramid, ballooning clouds of steam and a flowing stream of water in gilt faience connect a surreal composition of blue-and-white glazed stacked elements such as a gravity-defying kettle, a coffeepot, a building, and a René Magritte–inspired pipe.

Perished Bench, 2006
This bench, which opens in the style of a 15th-century Netherlandish triptych, is book-match veneered in a delicate and complex pattern of skeletons of extinct animals real and imagined, using the 21st-century method of computer-controlled laser cutting. The imagery conveys the theme of memento mori, the transience of life and material possessions, as found in 17th-century Dutch genre painting.