Colin Knight
Elegy For Egon RissMade from leather and aluminum, this small bookcase responds to the story of the Mid-Century Architect Egon Riss during WWII. Reconstructing the narrative of his iconic design “Penguin Donkey”, the work explores the hardship and alienation faced by designers during times of global conflict and the effects of war on design.
The work now depicts the original “donkey” bookshelf as a dying animal, starving on its side. Constructed similarly to airplane wings, referring to the original designs' fleeting fame due to material rationing in England, stretched leather shows the rib-like structure of the animal. The small aluminum bookcase is located beneath a buckled leather flap, almost suggesting a piece of luggage, while requiring a somewhat invasive action to use it.