Emphasizing beauty, purity, wit, emotional awareness, personal experience and interaction, BCXSY is a cooperative between designers Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto. A multi-disciplinary practice that creates and develops concepts, products, graphics, interiors and atmospheres, the designers recently had their first solo exhibition at Pantaloon in Osaka, Japan called Origins in Progress / 6 Projects, 6 stories.
Origins is one of their most prominent collections, a multi-year series of explorations into traditional crafts from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines.
Each Origin collection has a compelling narrative revealing the uncommon in craft.
Origin part II: Balance, celebrates a native and ancient weaving craft still practiced by women living under dire socioeconomic circumstances in Lakiya, Israel. The series featured seven area rugs woven in the Bedouin tradition by the women through a collaboration with Lakiya Negev Weaving – an organization of Bedouin artisans, initiated by SIDREH, a non-profit organization focused on improving the well-being of Bedouin women living in Israel’s Negav Desert. The rugs are the result of working within the boundaries of an ancient Bedouin weaving practice, where it is only possible to weave long, narrow strips of material. Moved by their visit to villages in Lakiya that are unrecognized by the authorities, Cohen and Yamamoto created Balance to embody the optimism the women exuded, that in the midst of adversity and misfortune there is a lasting element of proportion and beauty.
Caption: Ancient Bedouin weaving practice, where it is only possible to weave long, narrow strips of material. (Photos by Elio Nudelman)
For Origin part III: Contrast, BCXSY collaborated with Meitheal Mara, a charitable maritime cultural and educational centre based in Cork City in the south of Ireland, whose main goal is to preserve the craftsmanship of traditional Irish boat building. The boat-building techniques they witnessed were very different from the traditional artistry the designers have worked with in the past – the boat builders utilize rougher, unrefined and simple methods, while being strikingly efficient. BCXSY sought to employ the naturalness, efficiency and functionality of Meitheal Mara traditional working methods in order to create new objects. The result is a sparingly functional collection that includes a side table, stool, serving tray and fruit bowl, featured on We See Beauty Design Shop.
Caption: Made of shorter and wider planks of freshly cut Ash, the fruitbowl is shaped from two long cuts that make it possible to bend and twist the surface. The white painted parts are a nod to the water line painted on the boats. (Photos by BCXSY)
Known for the unexpected experience in the use of material, BCXSY delights in an innovative relationship between material and form. This is apparent in their newest collection for the Turkish Red & More exhibition at The Textielmuseum Tilburg that reflects the growing recognition in the design world for traditions, regional history and craftsmanship. The designers were invited to develop a number of products using the museum collection as a source of inspiration.
Once again stretching boundaries that link between the past and the present, BCXSY’s New Perspectives collection for the exhibition is an illusionary play of motifs and personal touch that came to life when using the TextielLab’s computer-controlled embroidery machine.
Drawing from research of the background, applications, similarities and differences between handmade- and machine-embroidery, the designers discovered that embroidery on water-soluble background, once washed, only the embroidered parts remain, resembling lace-like elements.
The traditional, richly laid dinner table then became their starting point. Instead of traditionally embroidered motifs, the designers used three-dimensional perspective grid-drawings, which occasionally continue off the textile’s borders. The result is a stark yet sublime contrast of white embroidered elements that appear to be laying on, and at the same time, merge into the white fabric.
BCXSY series of table-linens with a three-dimensional twist are part of the exhibition at The Textielmuseum Tilburg, Netherlands, which runs through the 26th of May 2013.
Caption: Table-linen series three-dimensional motifs such as artichokes, fruits, fish and shellfish for the New Perspectives Collection at The Textielmuseum in Tilburg, the Netherlands (Photos by Tommy Fotografie)
