Interiors for 2014 are going ‘elsewhere’

The past couple of years have seen decorating trends revolving around the idea of cocooning — that safe, cloistered world where we can envelop ourselves in the comfort of the neutral and the safe. Although this retreat may have been “nirvana” for some time, one realizes that it’s now 2014 and the world is no longer the same. Dullness and stagnation have set in and we have to move forward. We have to look in the direction away from our comfort zone, say forecasters at the recent Maison & Objet show in Paris and they now prescribe a trend based on the theme “Elsewhere.”

They invite us to be more open to the world, to embark on distant inner journeys. It seems that “globetrotters, nomads, amblers and bushwhackers are heading out to discover the Other,” they observe, “ and are sketching the shifting cartography of a mobile, fluid, cosmopolitan and more human world.”

LANDSCAPE BY ELIZABETH LERICHE

To get away from the stagnant rut of yesterday’s interiors, Elizabeth Leriche suggests that we look towards nature. “The soothing contemplation of nature’s landscapes nurtures both the eye and the mind, “ she observes. This quest for other lands, higher summits and broader vistas unlocks our creative potential. We teleport our imaginations to new horizons that lie between the power of materiality and an evanescent lightness, between infinity and microcosm. It’s a reverie of a poetic, sensitive nature. But this journey is not necessarily exotic.” Leriche wanted to bring the idea closer to the spiritual and contemplative, how each individual can construct his own mental landscape. “Therein lies a way to find an escape from our urban lifestyles — by clearing away the skylines that bring us back to our first environment.”

Landscapes have actually influenced western art and have been reinterpreted in various ways throughout history: from appearing through windows in paintings during the Middle Ages to its depiction on a vast, panoramic scale in photography. Even in eastern art we see the tradition of dreamstones, reducing landscapes to complete abstraction. Described by Leriche as “small chunks of the universe,” these dreamstones are worshipped and through them one travels by contemplating the veins on marble, eventually finding oneself on a mountain or in a lake, in the very heart of nature.

Sampling from the mineral world has also been a way of appropriating landscape like the way the Renaissance kunstkammers would contain collections of crystals and gemstones. In design today, there is a major research movement around marble which Leriche discovered and found in tune with her theme.

The designer Michael Anastassiades, for example, creates large discs of marble that curve and fold giving the appearance of utter lightness. His work illustrates how we have to ground ourselves in matter while simultaneously elevating our soul. The landscape as represented by matter, in effect, becomes dematerialized. It is reduced to its basic components, its skyline, its microcosms or vestiges, until it eventually vanishes completely. Leriche says this is also illustrated by the crystal forest built by Japanese artist Yasuaki Onishi, “wherein nature awakens and becomes luxuriant, celebrating a form of never-ending recreation and a ceaseless desire for change, for transformation.”

HELIOTROPIC BY FRANÇOIS BERNARD (CROISEMENTS AGENCY)

Elsewhere for François Bernard is “a place in the sun,” a sun-drenched, vagabond lifestyle. Aside from the solar shape and bright, sunny colors, heliotropism is also a metaphor for joie de vivre, the promise of a happy life, the expansion of an imaginative world. From suns that blaze with brilliance there are also the midnight suns and sleepless nights of Scandinavia that give a space that surreal ambiance and suns that are as cold and dazzling as mercury. “It is divine, artsy, sexy, at times kitschy and eccentric, luxurious and joyful, irresistibly hot,” says Bernard.

“Everything that gives energy is what we need today,” according to him. “It’s the opposite of what we have been through for the past 10 to 15 years of mostly neutral things and dull materials — things that absorb energy, that isolate, seal you in and protect you.” We are psychologically moving beyond this safe zone towards things that radiate energy.

This heliotropic phenomenon feeds on many influences such as the growing popularity of the color yellow, which was less favored but is now gaining ground as the preferred color of radiance, also since it is reminiscent of gold. Warm copper, Tom Dixon’s preferred metallic shade at the moment, is au courant, replacing steel, which is identified with the cold, energy-usurping interiors of the past. This trend also includes everything in the 20th century that personified the beauty and elegance of living under the sun: Capri, the Riviera, Picasso in Vallauris, Palm Springs, the art of the ‘50s. Jonathan Adler’s vases and pillows with graphic florals and birds as well as Les Heretier’s sunray vases have the updated vintage look that evokes this period. There is also neo-modernism with a conspicuous nod to the 1980s and the Memphis movement.

Another subtrend is the Gypsetter, a sort of neo-hippie, chic and luxurious quest for the good life as can be seen in Moissonet’s paisley print furniture and Niki Jones’ floral print pillows. Just as joyous is the “Party Time” trend in Desigual’s aprons and potholders and other kitchen accessories.

BEYOND BY VINCENT GRÉGOIRE (NELLY RODI AGENCY)

Vincent Grégoire’s Elsewhere is the infinitely far, going beyond the limits of what is known. It’s the ultimate in faraway places — unexplored, an exquisite strangeness, mysterious and bizarre, surreal and stunning. “It’s a scenography that creates a feeling of immersion, luxury and confidentiality; where you feel absorbed by a fascinating and intriguing ambiance that inspires complementary aesthetics and stimulates a myriad of innovations,” explains Gregoire.

In his quest for entirely new ground, breaking down all borders, he goes in two directions: one rockets off into outer space while the other plunges into the bottom of the ocean, the outermost bounds of the abyss. The first is a cutting-edge, technological world of space exploration — an angular, faceted, mineral empire of virtuality, new materials, data design, waves and energy — a “space punk “ universe with a homage to constellations, stars, asteroids meteors, space shuttles and capsules. The second is a neo-Atlantis of submerged, mythical civilizations, a paradise of the future. It pays homage to sirens, algae, shells, crustaceans and hybrid creatures with a “sea punk” slant.

A common feature to both dimensions is the bizarre. These twin universes reference surrealism — dreams, planets, things magical and unreal. There are also these ambivalent, mutant, phantasmagorical creatures inhabiting fantasy worlds, lying between blue-green murkiness and phosphorescence with codes that articulate a strange beauty — going from organic to gelatinous. “It’s a metaphor of sorts for our lives in turbid waters, says Gregoire.”