Eamon O’Kane’s Eames House/Playroom Hybrid

Since 2009 irish artist Eamon O’Kane has been making installation work that explores the continuous learning approaches of Charles (and Ray?) Eames. O’Kane makes the connection between the Eames’ work and the Froebel method of schooling which both Charles Eames & Frank Lloyd Wright experienced as children. The work above is the current installation of this body of work by O’Kane, and will be on exhibition from April 30th at The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design, as part of a group exhibition BROODWORK. At the bottom left of the image you can see the giant house of cards – the original ‘House of Cards’ was designed by the Eames’ in the year leading up to A Communications Primer, circa 1952. It was around this time that the Eames were heavily involved in ‘ART X’, or ‘Sample Lesson’ which took place at the University of California in 1952. The Eames’ were very engaged with teaching & learning, and this inevitably led to their engagement with Communication theory of the day.

(It’s interesting to note that O’Kane’s original exhibition in Limerick (images & description below) was sponsored by The Eames Foundation… I’ll have to try harder to get in touch with them!)

‘The Eames Studio Limerick’ uses as a starting point the fact that Charles Eames’s grandfather Henry Eames embarked from County Limerick for America in the mid 1700s. The installation involves constructing a scale model of a hybrid of the Eames Studio and House using a wooden structure covered in paper. The structure is split into two spaces, an archive/viewing space and a workshop/studio. In keeping with Charles and Ray Eames’ ideologies and approach, the model of the Eames house/studio is a resource archive about the development of architecture and design from the 20th century to the present day.
The space is a reflective space for research discussion and contemplation. There is a comprehensive display on the work of the Eames’s including screening of their films. Other architecture and design is also displayed both outlining the legacy of their practice and how architecture has developed since.
The workshop/studio performs a different function; it is used as a working studio where workshops are conducted for all ages. Charles Eames and Frank Lloyd Wright (who was a great inspiration for Eames) both were educated using the Froebel method of teaching, which involved blocks in primary and essential shapes as early teaching tools. The space is an extremely accessible workspace for children where many toys, shapes and drawing tools are available for them to play with.

http://www.eamonokane.com/eames_limerick/index.html

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