"GIJS BAKKER / OBJECTS TO USE" par Ida van ZIJL. Editions 010 Publishers, Rotterdam. 2000. Imprimé aux Pays Bas. Fort in-8, couverture cartonnée blanche illustrée en couleur sous jaquette découpée. 232 pages. Texte en anglais, illustré de nombreuses reproductions photographiques, noir & blanc et couleurs, pleine page pour la plupart, de créations de Gijs Bakker.

 

"Gijs Bakker has made a name for himself as a designer of revolutionary jewellery. Without any reservations he can be placed among the world's top ten in this field. Every international overview is bound to contain at least one of his designs. Such a place of honour has not been the destiny of his other work, and this troubles Bakker. He has something to say in the field of furniture design, industrial design and the public domain too, and it irritates him that his public, the critics, spectators, buyers and clients tend to brush these activities aside. Gijs Bakker has expressly requested that this book be restricted to industrial design, interiors and designs for exhibition stands and commissions for the public domain. The title Objects to use came from the provocative name that Gijs Bakker and his wife Emmy van Leersum, inspired by Ralph Turner's description 'sculpture to Wear', gave to their jewellery exhibition in Gallery RG in Willemstad on Curaçao in the Dutch Antilles. This term, coined by Bakker, refers explicitly to the similarities between the two categories. 'l design objects that people use, in the case of jewellery, by wearing them. ln the creative design process there is no difference between the one or the other object for use, at most a varied range of preconditions relating to the specific function.' With this stance he opts for a cutting-edge position in the ongoing discussion on the definition of what industrial design entails. He has expressed his ideas on this subject in many ways, actively as a designer but also theoretically as a teacher and organizer of design events and exhibitions. Both activities are discussed in this book…"

 

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