One to Watch: designer Valerie Identify infuses modern objects and areas with historic element

Debuted on the Artwork Athina Honest in late September 2024, the Noas Stool Assortment distills the elemental golden ratio proportioning of Greek columns. These generally seats and occasional aspect tables – developed with Milan-based Studio Mare – are rendered in strong mahogany, with upholstered cushions. They’ve intricately hand-formed ceramic buttons that seem to have chipped off an historic fresco with symbolic motifs reminiscent of Odysseus and the Ram or the Akrokeramo. These are the works of multidisciplinary designer Valerie Identify, who has arrived at design through trend, the place she designed a restricted version outerwear assortment for Bergdorf Goodman.

Get to know Valerie Identify, a traditionally impressed modern designer

The Caracas-born, New York- and Athens-based up-and-comer centres her work on discovering intelligent methods to channel historic references, giving recent relevance to the age-old, even historic, handicraft methods. Whether or not outfitting an inside or crafting distinctive luminaires, such because the Scavo Glass lighting collection, Identify roots her experimental spirit in a deep appreciation for the practices which have transcended time.

‘Time is the largest problem,’ she says. ‘Immediately, we’re so accustomed to the immediacy of delivering objects, and normal expectations could be fairly demanding. Some purchasers initially count on fast outcomes, however as soon as they’re introduced into the method and see all of the steps concerned in creating such intricate items, they acquire a newfound respect for the craftsmanship behind it, and their outlook shifts.’

For Identify, there’s an attract to resurrecting processes that have not been utilized in centuries. The thriller of the unknown could be a highly effective software in holding our consideration, particularly in such an image-saturated world.

After durations of intensive and discursive analysis, a lot of which occurs in Greece, Identify seeks out expert artisans upholding these age-old handicrafts and convinces them to interrupt custom only a bit, nudging them to use their experience to new codecs. They finally forge a detailed bond and obtain a shared purpose.

‘It’s an honour to study from craftspeople that preserve alive methods that had been as soon as prevalent,’ she says. ‘By reinterpreting these age-old strategies in a up to date context, we protect a cultural legacy whereas creating items that talk to right this moment’s world.

‘The connection to craftsmanship, rooted in endurance, precision, and a deep respect for supplies, infuses every challenge with a way of timelessness.’ She typically cites the Greco-Roman idea of Spoliā – taking a component out of 1 context and putting it in one other – as a driving drive.

Additionally introduced through the Artwork Athina Honest in September, the Scavo Glass assortment is derived from a deliberate and unrushed course of. It started with Identify stumbling upon a small glass vessel in a Swiss gallery and being drawn to its textured, weatherworn look.

‘I couldn’t inform whether or not it was from the third century or the Twenties,’ she says. ’I investigated its origin and found that this stage of patination resulted from the blown glass having spent centuries underground and earlier than being exhumed. “Scavo” means excavation in Italian.’

After consulting a colleague, she determined to translate this historic method and switch the ensuing glass vessels into an idiosyncratic lighting assortment. After a yr of experimentation with minerals, proportions, and colors, she and her collaborators arrived on the desired, if ever-evolving, end result.