Artists Create Playful Balloon Sculptures Inspired By The Ancient Venus Figurines
The Reddish studio is a product design duo based in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel. Founded by the designers Naama Steinbock and Idan Friedman in 2002, the studio has successfully created some unique product designs and design research focused on the complex relationship between people and objects.
Their project series “Venus of Jaffa” is inspired by prehistoric Venus figurines. According to them, “These enigmatic ancient figurines were found across Eurasia and traditionally named according to their origin. They are the focus of many researches and theories but remain mysterious to this day. Although their cultural meaning is not completely clear, their small and elegant forms demonstrate ingenious female body representations with different levels of abstraction and a lot of character.”
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Image source: Reddish Studio
For the Go for Broke exhibition (curated by Shahar Kedem for the JDW 2022), they created this project. The theme for the exhibition was “For Now”. So, they decided to give their wonderful and enigmatic Venus figurines a different lifespan- “While the archeological Venus statuettes have survived tens of thousands of years, our new addition to their dynasty is only ephemeral, and has the lifespan of a party decoration”, they said.
Image source: Reddish Studio
Image source: Reddish Studio
Image source: Reddish Studio
The sculptures are made up of balloons that are shaped using copper metal wires. They chose a color palette that reflect a mixture of earth and skin tones. The mixture of colors references “both human bodies and their historic clay representations.”
Image source: Reddish Studio
Image source: Reddish Studio
Image source: Reddish Studio
“Naama and Idan graduated with distinction from H.I.T, Israel where Naama is a professor at the Industrial design department. Together they hold workshops and lectures both in Israel and abroad. The studio took part in many local and international exhibitions, and won notable prizes including the 2021 Edmond de Rothschild Design Award for senior designers.”
Image source: Reddish Studio
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