Beauty in Form

As I was packing away one of our recent exhibitions at MoDiP on Kartell - an Italian design company who specialise in contemporary furniture and products made of modern materials that are aesthetically pleasing - I was admiring the plastic shapes, colours and designs and looking at the way that plastic can be moulded into some really beautiful forms. Now that’s not an earth shattering revelation - but for me it was something I hadn’t previously given much thought to as I use plastic in a very general way in my everyday life. 

Part of the Kartell display

Kartell items, as an example, come beautifully packaged encased in plastazote (a type of foam used in packaging for protection) that may be cut in intricate shapes to accommodate the item. The boxes themselves give credence to the idea that these are desirable objects that are to be admired and of high value – something that you would be proud to display in your home or use at a dinner party. 

Some of the objects I was handling retail for between £50 and £70, so the interesting thing here is that we are paying not for the material but for design, beauty and form. Essentially we are buying someone’s creativity and talent because plastic itself does not have the same value and allure as say precious metals or jewels but the human mind has no limits when it comes to imagination and therefore we can create kudos in inanimate objects made of an everyday material like plastic. 

Julie Connery (MoDiP Administrator)