POST DESIGN Round table Transparent Glass. Dimensions: Ø 90 x H 71.5 cm.
The heart of Memphis continues with the same strong beat as in its early days in
1981… Japanese designer Masanori Umeda, one of the founding members of the
subversive Memphis collective, is back! He's celebrating the true Memphis
spirit through the new Night Tales collection: fascinating pieces with a
surprising style 40 years after the creation of the post-modernist Memphis
group, founded by Ettore Sottsass in the 1980s, this new product family designed
by Masanori Umeda is taking its rightful place in the Post Design collections.
Night Tales is made up of the Utamoro series – pieces with unique
designs – along with several projects based on designs found in the archives
dating back to the 1980s.Born in Japan in 1941, Masanori Umeda went on to hone
and flaunt is talents as an architect and designer in Italy. He started out in
1962 in the studio of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni before becoming a
consultant at Olivetti. He held that position from 1967 to 1969, and it was
there that he met Ettore Sottsass, with whom he would go onto to collaborate
with in the 1980s for the creation of the famous Memphis collective.It was in
1981 that Umeda created his most iconic piece for Memphis: the incredible
„Tawaraya“ Boxing Ring. A transgressive creation that combines styles,
functions, colours and materials, fully investing in the dynamics of the Memphis
movement. Umeda's collaboration with Memphis continued over two more years.
In 1982, he designed the robot-shaped Ginza bookcase and in 1983, he created the
Orinoco ceramic vase.The Medusa table was created using one of Umeda's archived
designs, dating back to 1982. Medusa is a „domestic animal“ with zig-zag
legs, reminiscent of the arms of the Murmansk fruit bowl by Ettore Sottsass. The
wild and animal inspiration for this table, which was part of Umeda's project
signatures, which combine nature and design to create wonderful objects which
inspire instant empathy and emotional attachment, This table has an iridescent,
dichroic glass top which changes colour in different lighting and from different
angles, whilst casting colourful shadows around the room. Like any four-legged
animal, the bent metal legs are finished with transparent plexiglass
spheres.This table is reminiscent of the Memphis style which revolutionised
design in the 1980s, by shaking up the norms by deliberately stepping outside of
the lines of „good taste“. Soon, Memphis became THE subversive label of
Italian design with its wacky, colourful world inspired by comics, Pop Art,
cinema, Kitsch and Art Deco.
