Toronto designer Rob Southcott, left, is in New York City this weekend taking part in Model Citizens, a group show running at the Chelsea Art Museum as an adjunct to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. The show is to ICFF what Come Up To My Room and Radiant Dark are to Toronto’s IDS, arty offshoots where design talent is permitted to freestyle without too much regard for consumer considerations.
In fact, the Gladstone Hotel’s Come Up To My Room (CUTMR) helped put Southcott on the design map; his first contribution to the annual exhibition was his 2008 piece, United We Stand (affectionately known as the antler chair, click “more” to view). The bench garnered Southcott international attention and set him on his way.
The photo above was taken earlier this year at the 2011 edition of CUTMR where Southcott was showing Correlation and Jet Set (pictured), versions of which will be featured in NYC. But Correlation, which began life as a mammoth wall relief, has morphed into the Correlation Chandelier . . .
This evolution is typical of Southcott’s process: “I just try to start with something I’m happy with and it always grows into something else. There’s always a variety of applications for a particular idea. Jet Set (below) underwent a similar evolution.”
I reached Southcott this morning via telephone as he prepared to install the New York show. I asked the OCAD grad whether Toronto is an ideal locale from which to launch a career as an independent designer.
“Truthfully, I haven’t figured it all out yet,” he replied. “I’ve been doing this for five years now and I’m still doing things on the side to help keep me going. But the main reason I do this is because I have a passion to be creative and when I’m sitting down designing stuff, it’s not like work at all. I really enjoy what I’m doing, whether it’s sitting at the computer or being in my studio working with my hands to construct something. I love the process and that’s what keeps me keen.”
Southcott says he didn’t hesitate when curator Mika Braakman invited him to show alongside the 90 international artists/designers featured in Model Citizens: “I’ve never actually been down to New York as part of the ICFF,” he says, “and I’m the type of guy who when these opportunities arise I jump on them.”
Photos courtesy Rob Southcott, portrait by Christopher Jones
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