Industrial Design & art
Out of space
Basalt tableware
2020
A deep observation into the unique airy Scoria Basalt rock, started a design process based on the empty space in it.
This work was presented as part of the first Dutch Invertual Academy 2020 and so it recounted:
"Out of Space is a fictional local dining table that reflects on the very foundations of cuisine. It consists of implements and tableware made from Basalt rock, alongside local foods, and intends to explore the relationship between humans and nature.
The designers, Tal Preger Galili and Shahar Kedem, have been inspired by the transformative quality of nature. They first observed the materials found on the beach in their local area of Jaffa. Here, man-made tiles were returned from the sea, their shape and quality had been transformed by the erosive nature of the water. Then the designers explored the Golan Heights where an area of inactive volcanoes is covered in basalt rock. This material comes from the core of the earth; “burning, exploding, spilling, freezing and finally it remains on the surface of the earth as evidence of its depth.
The designers collected Scoria; a highly vesicular and airy basaltic rock. It is formed when air is caught within a volcanic explosion, creating a dark, lightweight, and perforated rock. Their ambition was to “cooperate with nature” and use a gentle minimal touch. Therefore, they closely observed each rock, looking for characteristics that they could transform to their benefit; shape, gaps, emptiness, and sculpted them into new forms using simple tools.
The stone-made dishes we created are an invitation. They allow touch and proximity and integration. It is a call for corporeal communication, a conversation discussing simple and basic needs and wills.”
The project brings together a fictional dining table with an invitation for a conversation. It touches upon childhood views and adult urban life and reflects on a restricted lockdown life and its peripheral view versus a daily routine that allows us to move freely from one point to another."
Collaboration with Tal Preger Galili
Guidance by Mieke Mayer
Curatorship Wendy Plomb, head of the Academy
Videos by Neta Moses and Carmel Bar