VICTOR CHU FEATURED DESIGNER
2007, 2008
NEW YORK, ESSEN, TAIPEI, KAOHSIUNG
Second Skin Design Exhibition
Second Skin is a sequel to Cooper Hewitt’s 2002 exhibition, Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design. The new exhibition will feature products and projects produced since 2002, as well as selected pieces from the original project. Second Skin will present examples of products, furniture, fashion, architecture, and media that are expanding the limits of the outer surface. Reflecting the convergence of natural and artificial life, the exhibition will show how enhanced and simulated skins appear throughout the contemporary environment. Designers today continually manipulate the relationship between the inside and outside of objects, garments, and buildings, creating skins that both reveal and conceal, skins that have depth, complexity, and their own behaviors and identities.
Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum organized the exhibition Second Skin II, on view at the Entry 2006 Expo in Essen, Germany. This major design expo featured exhibitions curated by prominent international museums, including MoMA, Vitra Design Museum and Cooper Hewitt.
Curator: Ellen Lupton, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Associate Curator: Jon C. Cordova
Producer: Vitra Design Museum
TWILIGHT
Nite blue blanket made in Italian cashmere with illuminating fiber optic textile center. Powered by an ultra thin, flexible solar cell.
50” x 50” (127cm x 127cm)
Designed and hand made by VICTOR CHU.
As an urban picnic blanket for the spring and early fall, TWILIGHT provides warmth and charm through cashmere and solar energy. During the afternoon, the solar cell collects energy and stores the power in a battery within an internal pocket. As the day cools and turns to evening, the wool provides warmth while the low light sensor activates the LEDs, illuminating the fiber optic textile center. Irregularities in the fibers create sparkling and shimmering light effects providing dazzle to the end of a lovely day at the park. Two original prototypes were created. The second prototype, "Midnight", is a cashmere and silk shawl with long illuminating fringes. The prototypes demonstrate high fashion, solar energy applications.
Second Skin at ENTRY 2006, Zeche Zollverein, Essen, Germany 2006.
Second Skin design exhibition at MOCA Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan 2007.
Second Skin design exhibition at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2007.
