12/06/2012

Modified Benches by Jeppe Hein

Art and design cross swords in this entertaining project by Danish artist Jepp Hein which appeals to the playful nature of the city dweller through the considered eye of the confessed surrealist. If you’ve not come across her work before Jepp is widely known for her tongue in cheek installations in the public domain, with this project reaching as far as Auckland, Australia I do believe. Browsing over her portfolio it seems that this body of work has been an ongoing series amongst several individual concepts, so this might not be the last we see of these deranged arrangements.

I’m sure these creations have brought a smile to many a commuter on the move with their “accidental” form, they look a lot like the rejects that never made it out of the factory and onto the shop floor. What I’d really be intrigued to see is the reaction people have to these as they pass, hopefullly Jeppe can link up with a filmmaker in the future to record this because I think it would be really fascinating to see.

From what we can gather here the younger generation naturally seem to take to the benches as if to a playground swing, which I guess is to be expected, although grandma and grandpa in the image above don’t look too impressed with the alternative to the traditional bench design. Joking aside I think we need work like this in the larger cities as their engaging and provide the interest needed within the concrete jungle where the unpredictability of nature is inevitably lacking.

Jepp is actually taking part in an event along the Belgian coastline this year which features a handful of her more recent bench creations, Beaufort04 is the fourth edition of the Triennial of Contemporary Art by the Sea and will be running to the end of September. If you want to attend this, which by the way looks like a fantastic tradition developing, I’ll leave the link alongside that of the artist just below.

www.jeppehein.net
www.beaufort04.be