Press Release
Throbbing Stillness Vessel by Maru Meleniou Wins the Bronze A' Design Award in Fine Arts and Art Installation Design
Maru Meleniou honored for fine arts and art installation design by the international grand jury of the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 28, 2022 /DesignNewswire/ Throbbing Stillness Vessel by Maru Meleniou, designed for Maru Meleniou Ceramic art &design lab, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Fine Arts and Art Installation Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2021 - 2022 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Bronze A' Design Award
The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.
Regarding Throbbing Stillness Vessel
Throbbing Stillness is part of a series of vessels exploring abstract ideas, concepts and existential questions. The paradox of Throbbing Stillness is that instead of the expected functionality of a flower vase, it implies the existence of a space capable to contain further communication with the viewer. Through its organic form it manages to transcend the rigidity of the medium and it seems to be vibrating with vital energy. Its shape and color highlight concepts such as emptiness, potentiality, expansion.
About Maru Meleniou
Maru Meleniou's background is rooted is art and design. Her shift in ceramics came in a time when graphic design has started to be become digitised. While looking for a more tactile expression she met with ceramics. The solitude, the repetitive and transformative nature of the medium was for her an absorbing exploration. Her work is based on organic forms, earth colors and various textures, on the small details, differences, imperfections and qualities that mirror the honesty of the hand - building creative process.
Award Record
This recognition makes Maru Meleniou a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Fine Arts and Art Installation Design Award
The A' Fine-Art Design Award is an international fine-art design competition recognizing best fine-art works by leading fine-art artists and creators worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to artists, painters, sculptors and ceramicists from all countries. Entries typically include sculptures, paintings, installations, photographs, drawings and mixed media works. Awarded art designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/fine-art
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/136403
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/136403
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!136403
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/327687
- Further Information from the Laureate: http://www.marumeleniou.com
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Throbbing Stillness Vessel
- Function
- Vessel
- Category
- Fine Arts and Art Installation Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts
- Colors
- Silver, Dark Gray, Gray, Light Gray and Dim Gray
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Maru Meleniou Ceramic art &design lab
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Maru Meleniou
- Country
- Greece
- Recognition
- Bronze A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2021 - 2022
- Design ID
- #136403
Credits
- Image Credits
- Image No1, No2, No3 No4 Nikos Koustenis Image No5 Maru Meleniou
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Throbbing Stillness is not the vessel that flowers will be beautifully arranged in. Throbbing Stillness is a vessel that aims to contain abstract ideas, thoughts and images. A vessel that contemplates the concept of "vessility".
- Inspiration
- My inspiration comes from the book White by Kenya Hara, Zen Buddhism and the human body. In the field of ceramics, one creates forms to contain the emptiness. The purpose of a vessel is to hold nothingness within, a purpose greater than its function. White is delicate, fragile and from the moment of its birth it is destined to be “polluted”. My vessel is not trying to be a perfect white, rather it carries a layering, in an attempt to search for a way to feel whiteness. A vessel, a human heart, a vital organ, or a musical instrument always inhaling/exhaling, pulsating in a space of closeness and familiarity yet distant and unknown.
- Research
- I am interested in the materiality of my medium and I wish to highlight its raw nature and properties. After practising with a variety of colors and glazes I realised that all this would be a kind of cover up, making it hard for the medium to carry its message. So I decided to move forward with my material being almost naked.
- Challenge
- The most challenging part was to work on the piece as much as I would not manipulate clay to the point that it would lose its properties and its own life and substance. To create an object that carries the message powerfully. An object simple in form and yet not simplistic.
- Realization and Technology
- It is a hand-build ceramic vessel, with the coiling technique, an ancient technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel, using the hands, fingers, and simple tools. That way small details, differences imperfections and qualities mirror the honesty of the creative process. A slow almost meditative process that after years of practise creates a unique relationship between artist and medium. I used stoneware clay and painted it with porcelain slip, glazed and fired at 1220C
- Operation and Interaction
- Human beings are designed to communicate. We define ourselves through relationships and interactions with our environment, with others, with the objects that surrounds us. Throbbing Stillness is a unique object that aims to offer a space for connection, an invitation to interact.
- Project Duration and Location
- Throbbing Stillness was created in 2020 in Athens, and was exhibited in Milan Design Week 2021 at 1000Vases
- Keywords
- Sculptural vessel, Naked ceramics, Contemporary Ceramics, Handbuilt ceramics, Raw minimalism, Slow design
