Eames Elephant film
In 1945, pioneering designers Charles and Ray Eames created a playful molded plywood elephant. The legendary elephants never went into production but now, in honor of Charles Eames's 100th birthday, the elephants are available in a limited edition. As part of the celebration, Charles's grandson, Eames Demetrios, made a delightful stop-motion animation of the elephants. It's titled "A Gathering of Elephants." Link to "A Gathering of Elephants" video, Link to video documenting the making of The Elephants, Link to Eames Gallery (Thanks, Ming-Li Chai!)
the latest
latest episodes
Excellent. I wonder if the heads normally articulate. I'm sure you spotted the blackbird/crow/raven in the studio? Super fabulous, eh?
I find it astonishing (and more than a little pathetic and disgusting) how much Eames Demetrios is managing to wring ever more money from his grandparents' talent. $1,900 for a child's plywood seat?! Charles and Ray would've been appalled. They were all about democratizing design, not fetishizing it and selling only to rich collectors.
BRICOLOGY, apologies for the slow response--had some glitches signing up.
First of all, I truly am glad you care so much about Charles and Ray's work--it is a privilege to be responsible for something that matters in this way. And though I don't expect us to agree on everything, this time I am afraid I DO have to call you Cranky McCrank, to use your own term from the "robot" debate a week or so ago.
Specifically, though I acknowledge your passion, I have to say that "pathetic" and "disgusting" struck me as a little extreme as your preferred terms for my efforts in preserving a historic landmark--the Eames House. My grandparents wanted someone to take care of their work when they were gone: us. So my mother, my siblings and I have accepted the challenge (we all do a fair number of other things for a living as well, but this certainly is the highest profile at this point).
In fact, the Eames commitment to quality combined with their vision of the potential of mass production pretty much requires that their chairs still be made under our supervision. Some like the lounge chair are expensive and some, like the plastic chair, are actually cheaper than the knock-offs. But what is more important is that they are all made well.
I actually agree (as does the Vitra Design Museum who makes the elephants) that it would be great if the elephants weren't so expensive, but it is the nature of the tooling. The head and the body both require separate molds for the plywood--and complex molds at that. For years, actually, we did not manufacture the elephants for this reason, but many people kept asking for them. We wanted to use Charles' 100th birthday to bring in to existence something special that was never fully realized and then it struck us and the folks at Vitra: the elephant. Of course, doing it as a limited edition didn't change the tooling issues, but it did mean that those who spent the money would likely be able to hold on to the value. In fact, had you gone to one of the links in David's original post, you would have heard that we are exploring more affordable materials so it can be available as a toy (which, incidentally, re LUMMELS, will mean a non -articulated head; these wooden ones are screwed tight; the original one that Charles and Ray gave to my Mom has a fully loose head, but that doesn't fly anymore).
Just as the limited edition honors one aspect of Charles and Ray's vision for this elephant, the more affordable material will, if we pull it off, honor another, equally important, dimension--accessibility. But I feel strongly that it wouldn't have worked going the other way: inexpensive first, high end second. Maybe we were wrong, but these were the choices Charles and Ray asked us to make. So their vision, lovingly rendered in the plywood material that it emerged from, came first in this form. I am glad of it.
It is a bit of a shame that because the plywood elephants are so expensive, they are not exactly toys at all, but perhaps simply beautiful sculptures. But, on the other hand, it is not the worst thing in the world to have been a part of bringing forth some beautiful sculptures. Essentially, that's why I made the film too. For fun. And as a birthday present.
I hope you watch it again. Go for it: it's right here on YouTube.
Wow. It makes me sound like an idiot to say this, but I must: LOL, BRICOLOGY, YOU GOT PWNED!!1!11!