Recently I was on holiday to far off lands. During the journey over, the in-flight magazine fed me photos of luxury global hotels with their sleek modernist interiors. Once on the ground I was driven through the capital city passing billboards advertising new apartment blocks, all with their staged interior shots of generic mid-century splendour. Upon arrival finally to the back of beyond, the TV showed me a popular Turkish soap-opera translated into the local language, itself sporting a Set comprising furniture in the modern taste……In the end the country I visited mattered little, for it seems that wherever in the world we dare to venture this summer- modernism will be there already to greet us.
As a humble follower of inspired design (from any historical period), I’m the first to admit that much of what I admire has emerged during the modernist-led Era of the last 100 years. Somehow those sleek masterpieces of modern simplicity can inspire a near-religious response in us and all from just the curve of an arm or the shadow cast from a leg. The world would be poorer without modernist designs, but the same as I joke about people- while I may love them all individually, its collectively I struggle!
De-personalised beauty
By its own hand modernism removes borders. A fanatical obsession with simplicity and purity of form has ripped away the (sometimes excessive) ornamentation of the past and sanded out the quirks that previously would have signified some sort of local or national variation. Check for yourself. Flick through a magazine or online site like Pinterest at their modern interiors and try to guess which country each photo or object is from? Beautiful indeed, but also sometimes homeless. Modernism, for all its ideals, is just visual globalisation. And while that’s not a bad thing in itself, I do often wonder about the world beyond modernism and how we will be able to fill some of the gaps that have naturally emerged?
What comes next?
Within the antiques and interiors industry there is always continued chatter about what will come next? When the fresh smell of modernism has faded how will people choose to furnish their cherished homes and offices? The natural assumption of course is some form of traditionalism. Many (with rooms stacked high with mahogany) would like to see a return to the stately trappings and formality of Victoriana like we saw a few decades ago. Others perhaps would choose an earlier era steeped in craft tradition, while another growing band already opt for a more theatrical melting pot approach, staging and conjoining random objects from all periods for cerebral effect. Ok, so I guess I fall into this last grouping too, but which really deserves to come next?
Food for thought
I think it is always good to turn to other sectors for advice and inspiration. In this case the food industry may prove a good comparison for us. A few years back they too were going through a similar quandary. Food had become globally available and Nouvelle Cuisine with its modernist undertones was all the rage, yet people began to feel disengaged with it all. In response a ‘Glocal’ message began to appear and appeal. Organic and ‘field to fork’ messages of locally grown produce not only helped reinvigorate a sense of regional identity back onto our plates, but commercially some traditional (and less fashionable) food types such as regional cheeses, beers and orchard fruits began to see a real revival also. What was important was the insistence that the new local would complement but not overturn the global exotics we’d grown to enjoy. From the chefs (the interior designers of the plate world) clever combinations of familiar ingredients mixed with more exotic foods caught our attention yet brought us back into the warmth of familiar surroundings.
Diverse interiors
When it comes to refitting our interiors I strongly believe that whatever comes after modernism will need to re-embrace the sense of local and regional diversity that has been missing of late. Mixing styles or periods up will no longer be enough and a real sense of place will be expected as well.
People will always need good practical design, so many aspects of modernism in our homes are undoubtedly here to stay. Sofas are not going to get less comfortable for instance and the size and layout of modern homes will continue to dictate much. But just as the food industry before us, there exists a real need for reconciliation and promotion of our more humble and regional objects alongside the modern industrial pieces. In such a circumstance I can see Early Oak becoming fashionable once again, not in its heavy entirety but perhaps in bite sized portions complementing a contemporary piece. Ornamentation, when well conceived, will be reapplied and relished, and known local motifs and colour hues rechampioned just like nautical motifs along the coastline. Craftsmanship, not just of line, needs to be respected in the future.
Everyday access
With many in the public already feeling disconnected from antiques it is down to us to re-engage them at an understandable local level, just as local farmers have done for our stomachs. What modernism offers in eye candy, it takes away more through its sense of its own perfection. Humans are imperfect and feel very comfortable with imperfection. I doubt therefore that it will be through some lauded idol (by an over-praised designer) that finally makes people re-engage with their past. It will be through the warmth and imperfection of everyday objects made and used by everyday people just like themselves.
The Downton effect
On my return flight back to England I was again reading the same in-flight magazine. In it was an article I had somehow missed before about visiting Britain and how a Russian journalist had come over here for a few weeks to explore the charm of the Cotswolds through some Downton Abbey heritage trail. From this clearly well travelled individual, I got the sense that it was not the modernist hotels of London that appealed and deserved writing about, but the little snippets of old world England that they cherished most along the trip. Those quirks, unique to the Cotswolds, had defined their trip. Local diversity it seems, does still matter…..
…..now if I could only have got that person to take home an English Cotswold School sideboard as a souvenir of their trip….then by all accounts, everyone would have been happy!
Broken Chair photo attribution: by Jamiecat; Vegetables photo attribution: by verseguru; Cotswold House photo attribution: by photofabs
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