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Jun 10 2020
Surface
Design Dispatch
Warren Kanders divests from tear gas, Taliesin’s next chapter, and chairs made from recycled lunch boxes.
FIRST THIS
“One of the best qualities of design and designers, besides being humanistic, is our reactivity.”
HERE’S THE LATEST

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Warren Kanders Exits the Tear Gas Business

Last year, Warren Kanders stepped down as a vice chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art following widely publicized protests over the sale of tear gas by his company, Safariland. At the time, Decolonize This Place, the activist group that was leading the protests, had raised complaints that Safariland’s tear gas was being used against migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Kanders and his company have been receiving more negative attention recently after a surge in demand for tear gas and other aggressive crowd-control technologies from local police departments in response to ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd.

Now, Safariland will divest from “crowd-control solutions, including chemical agents, munitions, and batons, to law enforcement and military agencies,” says Kanders. The divestiture “removes the active component and allows Safariland to focus on passive defense protection,” which includes body armor, bomb suits, and safety holsters. The transaction is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2020.

Though protesters acknowledge the move signals progress, some argue that further action is needed. “Tear gas is a chemical weapon,” says Eyal Weizman, the founder of Forensic Architecture, an artist group that focuses on potential human rights violations and showed a video work critical of Kanders at the 2019 Whitney Biennial. “We need to move beyond Kanders and use the momentum of the current protests to ban tear gas outright and worldwide.”

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What Else Is Happening?

Check-Circle_2x Cinemark’s Mark Zoradi predicts that the rhythm of movie theaters won’t return until 2022.
Check-Circle_2x Brands making performative statements about diversity are finding themselves in hot water.
Check-Circle_2x The toppling of monuments to slave traders sends shock waves through the British art world.
Check-Circle_2x After a petition, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago agrees to cut ties with the police.
Check-Circle_2x The School of Architecture at Taliesin will change its name and move to Cosanti and Arcosanti.
Check-Circle_2x Urban parks are experiencing an unlikely renaissance amid Covid-19 and ongoing protests.


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SURFACE SUMMER SCHOOL

Surface Summer School, our summer partnership with UPenn’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design in which students design a mobile Covid-19 testing unit, launched last week. Headed by Miller Professor and Chair of Architecture Winka Dubbeldam, the program will be bolstered by a digital lecture series that features prominent design-world figures. On Monday, Yves Behar kicked things off with a lecture on the power of design’s reactivity. Tune in this evening for a talk by Ferda Kolatan, Associate Professor of Practice and the founding director of su11.

QUARANTINE CULTURE

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MoMA: Cooking With Artists

“Like an artist, a cook holds the key to the transformation of material,” writes the chef Mina Stone, who is hosting a new interview series, Cooking With Artists, for MoMA’s online magazine. As most of us have been forced to become more comfortable in the kitchen during the quarantine, the series sees Stone dive into the culinary experiences that have shaped the likes of Dara Friedman, Anicka Yi, and Hugh Hayden. Each artist shares personal anecdotes, family food rituals, and one go-to recipe that “shines a light on the essence of who they are, their work, and hopefully who we are as a society,” writes Stone. “It’s a universal language that we can all relate to—a pause in the day that offers a release when so much is out of our control.”

THE LIST

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Member Spotlight: Callidus Guild

Grounded in the world of international fine art, Brooklyn’s Callidus Guild conceives and installs surfaces and wallpapers for the world’s most illustrious clients. Callidus Guild is known for an elevated, one-of-a-kind aesthetic that incorporates plasters, precious metals, and handmade paints.

Surface Says: Owner and creative director Yolande Milan Batteau’s creations—from her wallpapers to gilded mirrors—are infused with a sense of magic. That aura radiates from her verdant and charming Clinton Hill studio, too.

AND FINALLY

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Today’s Attractive Distractions

This design student makes swing-like seats from recycled lunch boxes.

Novel laser-scanning technologies render deep-sea life in vivid detail.

Test your architecture knowledge with this thorough new trivia book.

A Princeton study finds that home gardening will make you happier.

               


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