Nomadic Museum - Art melding with Design

Can art and design be one, or do they always sit on the edge of each other? Through my schooling and personal experiences, I have always looked for this connection, but struggle to see it in built form much less my own ideas. I see architects and landscape architects attempting to be artists, but many times at the cost of function. Landscape Architects have an opportunity to work with art, design, and engineering, yet our most acclaimed art (Landscape Art Installation) is just that, art installed. I itch to find something that is a perfect blend of both. Opposite there are designers and engineers that focus strictly on cost, efficiency, and function at the expense of expression. I rarely see an expression of art with a seamless fucnctionality. I recently read and visited the "Nomadic Museum". This is a temporary museum that is currently visiting at the Santa Monica Pier. The museum was designed by Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect and sculptor. The museum was designed and built specifically for the exhibit; "Ashes and Snow" by Gregory Colbert. Santa Monica is the second stop on its world tour. In my mind this is an example of design and function melding into an artistic blend.

The museum uses suprisingly simple materials in its construction, 108 empty containers from container shipping, and paper tubes to form a 56,000 square foot exibition space. Yes, the kind of paper tube you get your toilet tissue from. These two simple materials sound unasethetic and not something that would be artistic, however they really accomplish two goals, they create a physical space worthy of being a exhibition space, and at the same time their simplicity combines to make a sculpture in itself. This maybe the first real perfect meld of form and function. The Ashes and snow exhibition within the Nomadic Museum, is a surreal submersion into a world of photography, and, video, while being stimulated through audible sound and music. It will be in Santa Monica until May 14, when it continues on to Brasil, Japan, Australia, and Europe. www.ashesandsnow.com/exhibition/