From the Series
Charismatic Spanish designer Jaime Hayón is somewhat of a creative hybrid. His inventions are at once playful and sophisticated, ridiculous and logical, and straddle the worlds of art and design. Hayón’s quirky designs are currently the focus of a solo exhibition, appropriately entitled Funtastico, at the Design Museum Holon, Israel. The exhibition covers 10 years of Hayón’s work.
For the exhibition, Hayón wrote introductions to some of the pieces, small illuminations on his thoughts and inspirations for the viewer. His work lends itself to the telling of stories – each item has unique character.
Too often these days, designers allow precedent to dictate their work and don’t stray too far form the expected. But not Hayon: his work brims over with playfulness. From lively interior spaces, to unusual toys and cheeky subversion of traditional form, Hayón is not afraid to take risks with his designs. The green rocking chicken for example, asks why a child should grow up sitting on a rocking horse? And who might that child become if their playroom contained a green rocking chicken instead.
Hayón debuted his large-scale Face Mirror for Funtastico at the Design Museum Holon. The one-of-a-kind piece is a huge hanging mirror, skull-like in shape and inspired by primitive masks. A mask, Hayón explains, is itself a storyteller. It at once both reveals and conceals: hiding the face, but exposing the culture and character (if only assumed for a moment) of the wearer. The Face Mirror does this to additional level – the mirrored eyes reflect the watchers face, while the stone sections hide it.
It’s been almost 10 years since Hayón was spoke for the first time at Design Indaba Conference. In 2007 he was certainly moving with upward momentum, we’re excited to have him back on the stage to tell us all about what he’s been up to in the interim and what he might have up his sleeve for the future.
Jaime Hayón will be speaking at Design Indaba Conference 2016. Book now.
