Make Furniture, Not
War
Douglas Coupland stages “the world’s first table
signing” to draw attention to the state of design in Canada.
Ernest Hemingway held
court with artists and socialites at Harry’s Bar in Venice. Andy Warhol’s
“champagne and chocolate cake” art openings are legendary and
Dorothy Parker was a fixture in Manhattan’s Algonquin Hotel at the
infamous “Round Table”. Now author Douglas Coupland is capitalizing
on what is left of literary culture’s aura by signing round tables
of his own design in a 21st century update of a celebrity artist’s
happening, which Coupland calls, “The world’s first table signing”.
But the counter culture of the past seems to have been replaced by the sales
counters of a high end lifestyle present. At this event, held on Saturday
afternoon in Vancouver’s Caban store in the upscale South Granville
area, there was only coffee and water in sight - ipso facto - a non-event
for the three luminaries listed above, who would likely have still been
in been in bed at this hour.
Add to these unenticing ingredients a massive anti-war rally taking place
five kilometres away in downtown Vancouver and the crowd at the table signing
was bound to be scant. At one point Coupland had only his toy Canada Geese
to keep him company, though he seemed not to mind.
There was more than
a hint of performance art in Coupland’s presentation. Dressed in an
inexplicable combination of black and white jockey outfit and home-made
glued Canada hat, with “Made in Canada” stickers all around, those
who visited were greeted by a slightly eccentric, quite entertaining, caricature
of Captain Canada.
Though the event was sparsely attended, Coupland’s “make furniture,
not war” event was a success of sorts - in an understated Canadian
way. The author/designer/artist gamely engaged with each of the visitors,
most of whom were paying $200 for a signed copy of Coupland’s new,
limited edition table, manufactured in Edmonton by Pure Design, exclusively
for Caban. The dark wood design, the latest installment of Coupland’s
“target” series, is named after the famous Hemingway haunt, “Harry’s
Bar” in Venice.
Not everyone coughed up two hundred dollars for a piece of design-meets-performance-art
history. Some just came to meet their literary idol. One woman introduced
herself as an English teacher and a fan before turning to present her nephew,
who managed to look both scared and bored. Coupland tried to break his trance,
“What are you reading right now?” Blank stare. “Ah, video
games. I can tell - books are dead.” Perhaps that is why Coupland returns,
from time to time, to design and sculpture.
Coupland’s real reason for the table signing, beyond “moving the
goods”, is to draw attention to the sorry state of Canadian design
manufacturing, which he believes can be described as “doing nearly
nothing with superabundance. It’s sinful. It’s disgusting. And
we have a government that makes us think this is okay.”
Canadians have perfected
the design and manufacture of 2” x 4” planks and it is time to
move on, from foolishly shipping off all of the country’s raw materials
to exporting many more finished products. “We should be shipping raw
logs to Newfoundland, and Newfoundlanders should be making kickass furniture
that wipes Ikea off the map. Anything less than this is national failure”.
In keeping with the
art and celebrity theme, the event was photographed, with a Polaroid camera
similar to the one with which Warhol documented many events, by Ernest Hemingway’s
grandson, Vancouver photographic artist Patrick Hemingway.
(This article grew out of a ranting email exchange - excerpted below. All
expletives have been edited so as not to upset Coupland’s mother, whom
he describes as “the dream Globe reader”.)
James Culham is editor
of useful + agreeable, a design and travel magazine. www.usefulandagreeable.com
- jculham@usefulandagreeable.com
a version of this article
appeared in the globe & mail newspaper, saturday, february 22, 2003
========
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 12:03 AM
Subject: table signing
hi doug,
i was just by the caban window this evening and saw a notice of your table
signing on the weekend. i believe you said this is a new table design? i'd
like to talk to the globe review about doing a piece in the saturday paper.
please send any info. + images - would be best to run it with your
appearance on sat.
could be an elvis mob scene - you may have to escape by helicoptor from
the
roof.
james
=======
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 12:28 AM
Subject: Re: table signing
Mob scene? Good God, no. I look at this as
one of those rolling-up-shirt-sleeves-and-helping-Canada's-depressing-manufacturing-sector
exercises. I get so livid when I see our government shipping
away a million logs, and with each log, 50 jobs. Fools.
And then Canadians reflexively parrot moronic colonial crap like, "Well,
gee, it'd take money to set up things like furniture factories..."
"Well, YES, you F'ing twits. It WOULD."
And then we can't find an immediate market for our lumber and we walk into
a corner, stick our head up against a wall and whimper, "Gosh. Nobody
wants our logs. We'd better just throw them away."
James, machines pick logs as if they were daisies, and it's only going to
get faster and require fewer people. WHY THE FRICK AREN'T WE
KEEPING A FEW LOGS HERE AND ADDING SOME INTELLINGENCE TO THEM! We
have the talent, the engineering skills, an enthusiastic labour force but
no "...We'd best ship our logs away..."
End of rant.
So that's my opinion. Is Caban presenting this as a glamour
event? I refuse to wear my Bryan Ferry suit for this one. It's fleece and
screeds. But I do think the idea of autographing furniture
is kind of sexy. It's kind of blank and Warhol-ish and industrial, in the
best senses of those words.
No idea who has photos of the Caban table. I mean, if they don't, who will?
I've got two of them here at the house, but no photos....
D
=============
Date: Thursday, February
13, 2003 2:45 PM
Subject: questions
hi doug,
...
.1. works such as the ‘hockey night in canada’ and ‘expo
67’ tables and your books ‘souvenir of canada’ and ‘vancouver:
city of glass’ often deal with a mixture of what i’d call nostalgia
and nationalism. how does that fit with your position as a global brand
(for lack of a better term)? are you interested in exporting canadian culture?
do you believe, as indigo books used to say, “the world needs more
canada”?
2. unless there is a
harry’s bar in west van that i don’t know about, i assume you’re
referring to the one in venice - with the dark wood - where hemingway hung
out (where didn’t he hang out? by the way, his grandson patrick is
a photographer and a friend - and i think he’ll be shooting the event
with me on saturday). but back to the point, why ‘harry’s bar’?
are you interested in how places, or in this case a table, can be fetishized
based on an author/artist’s endorsement?
3. the pieces are numbered
and will be signed, but are they art? do you have a goal in mind for saturday’s
“table signing”? is it “move the goods” or something
else?
4. although the process
of design is typically initiated by an individual and often intended for
universal use, somehow national characteristics (or more likely stereotypes)
frequently enter into the equation. reputations are cemented in consumers’
minds for decades, producing tremendous added value. i’m thinking of
italian and swedish furniture, german cars, japanese electronics and so
on. if this is, as many believe, an increasingly global and internationalist
era, why does, or should, nationalism play a role in design?
5. you’ve lived
in japan and the u.s., and have likely noted the nationalistic pride many
japanese have for ‘made in japan’ design goods and can’t
help but have noticed the u.s.’ various - “buy american”
movements over the years - in cars and clothing, etc.. many other industrialized
countries are similarly concerned with developing and supporting their local
industries. how would you describe canadian attitudes and government policies
in the recognition and promotion of design generally?
============================
Date: Friday, February
14, 2003 12:15 AM
Subject: Voici encore...
Hi James,
I went in and rejigged things a tiny bit just for flow. But it’s all
here....
………………………………………………………………………….
Q)
Works such as your Hockey Night in Canada, and Expo 67 tables and your books,
Souvenir of Canada, and Vancouver: City of Glass, often deal with a mixture
of what I’d call nostalgia and nationalism.
A)
Yup.
Q)
Why?
A)
The books in particular were my attempt to stop looking at Canada using
glasses with prescriptions issued circa 1973. I think that Souvenir of Canada
is maybe one of the first books on Canada that refuses to use photos of
the country in a non-fawning, non-boosterist manner. You know the usual
suspects: Peggy’s Cove and orange grain elevators photographed at sunset
-- and all the usual images which have been drained of psychic charge decades
ago. I mean, you go to the airport to buy a book on Canada to take to friends
in, say, Europe, and all you find are hardcover glossy thingies that contain
sterilized imagery that says zilch about our daily lives. We all know what
I’m talking about here. Americans reading these words wouldn’t
know, but any Canadian reading these words knows EXACTLY what I mean.
Q)
How does that fit with your position as a global brand (for lack of a better
term)? Are you interested in exporting Canadian culture?
A)
We should start doing more with what we have. Whether it stays inside our
boundaries or not isn’t the primary issue.
Q)
But as for you being a brand…?
A)
Me? A brand? I’m a very lazy person, so it’s hard to think of
myself being a brand. Brands don’t go to bed at 2:30 AM and wake up
at 10:30 every morning. Brands are photogenic and have logos. I am logoless.
I dread cameras. I used to try to be good for the camera, but now my philosophy
is, “Oh for God’s sake, show a picture of furniture or a book
cover instead. Or if you have to show a face, show Matt Damon or Brad Pitt.
Or a disaster or something sexy. I lost my aura somewhere around 1994 and
that was that.
Q)
The pieces are numbered and will be signed, but are they art?
A)
Nope. They’re design. But I think the SIGNING itself is performance
art. It’s a deliberate way of hijacking a capitalist boutique to generate
the exact dialogue we’re having right now -- questions about nationalism,
authorship, art, design, commerce, industry…
Q)
Do you believe, as Indigo books used to say, “The world needs more
Canada?”
A)
Indigo USED TO say? Does this mean they’ve STOPPED believing it? Really?
I’d find out what that’s all about. Call Heather immediately.
Q)
But you?
A)
What the world DOESN’T need is increased Canadian raw material exports.
The world needs more VALUE ADDED CANADIAN GOODS made HERE using our own
brains and natural resources. We are losers and idiots to ship away our
heritage.
Q)
Italians and Swedes have reps for furniture design—the Japanese for
electronics, and so forth. What about Canada?
A)
Most countries have aesthetics based on doing the most with what little
they have – Sweden and pine; Japan and bamboo. The Canadian aesthetic
is based on doing nearly nothing with superabundance. It’s sinful.
It’s disgusting. And we have a government that makes us think this
is okay. We should be shipping raw logs to Newfoundland, and Newfoundlanders
should be making kickass furniture that wipes Ikea off the map. Anything
less than this is national failure.
Q)
How would you describe Canadian attitudes and government policies in the
recognition and promotion of design generally?
A)
Some people and orgs have been great – the DX in Toronto, and some
arms of government that help businesses like Pure. The HUGE unaddressed,
undiscussable, taboo issue is that we are stuck in a position whereby if
we don’t give away our raw materials, the people who buy them can economically
destroy us. THAT is what the government must address.Q)
I assume this table refers to Harry’s Bar in Venice. The dark wood
… Hemingway and all that.
A)
Oh yes.
Q)
Why Harry’s Bar as a name? Are you interested in how places, or in
this case a table, can be fetishized based on an author/artists endorsement?
A)
If that’s a long way of saying that there’s nothing I’d like
more in life than to get shitfaced with Truman Capote and Maria Agnelli
at 3:00 AM in Venice, then the answer is yes. But literary culture in Canada
isn’t really glamorous. It’s not glamorous at all. Whenever I
pay GST on stuff at the airport customs, and they scroll through tariff
categories on the computer screen, I expect to see CanLit sandwiched in
there between tractor parts and Bartlett pears.
