MICH ROSSITER reviews Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life at The Design Museum.
Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life is an expansive and overdue celebration of this unsung defector of modernism. Perriandās success derived from her ability to acquire many diverse, contrasting design philosophies and condense them into new ways of thinking. A career which spanned much of the 20th century, in which Perriand explored how the human body could connect with material qualities and political aims, is sequenced across five key spaces.
Ā The exhibitionās opening chapter sets the scene for Perriandās first foray into furniture design: Perriand as a talented young designer working at the Paris studio of Le Corbusier, Europeās famous (and indeed, infamous) flag-bearer for modernism and advocate for the design of homes as āmachines for livingā. Perriandās early commitment to designing for the Machine Age is manifested in her iconic ball bearing necklace, through which she kept modernism close to her chest.

An important piece from this early period is āchaise-longue basculanteā (1928). The work is pneumatic, elegant and adaptable, transforming into a rocking chair when lifted from its cradle and placed on the floor. It embodies the intellect behind Perriandās work and the more positive aspect of modernismās grand plan: design simplicity, seventy years before Steve Jobs adorned himself as its messiah.
The show presented a stimulating variety of material. Finished works of furniture and interior spaces are accompanied by concept sketches, patent and technical drawings, intimate photos of Perriandās daily life, design models and curious artefacts which Perriand used as design inspiration. In bringing all these together, the exhibition delivered a richness of content whereby items supported one another and built a cohesive bigger picture of Perriandās achievements.
The exhibition also documents Perriandās defection from modernism to a more material-focused method of working in the 1930s, the designer driven by a fascination with objet-trouvĆ© and biomorphic design. However, in this section, the changing economic and political values in Perriandās work, which moves from empowering machines to empowering people, is largely brushed over. Curators took a curiously apolitical stance here, and again when detailing Perriandās work with anti-fascist activists in Spain. In removing this key aspect from her work, Perriandās political mettle was lost in translation.
The exhibition did well to avoid lazy or fetishistic stereotyping of Japanās design traditions. Perriandās relationship with Japan was unpacked sensitively and at length, conveying her collaboration with Japanese designers rather than presenting Japan as her muse. Even so, the exhibition failed to highlight the influence of Japan on its own design, which leant heavily on Japanese motifs, including accentuated shadows and paper panels. Furthermore, this chapter in the show was over-saturated with work, taking away from many of the important, highly-resolved climax-pieces.

Among these worksĀ are cantilever bamboo chair (1940) and bamboo and wood chaise longue (1940). Light and dynamic, these objects are comprised of sinuous, repeated, steam-bent bamboo elements held by a more muscular frame. They embody the synthesis of Perriandās eclectic inspirations and her masterful joining of dots between multiple strands of research.Ā Had replicas of these chairs been provided to visitors, a more profound and corporeal understanding of Perriandās evolution would have emerged. But this was not the case. In fact, the majority of Perriandās work was not available to be used by the audience. Indeed, the most engaging and surprising part of the exhibition was the space in which replicas of Perriandās work were arranged freely to be perched on and inhabited.
When asked about how one of Perriandās 1920s modernist chaise-longues felt, one visitor replied that āit feels like being at the dentistā. This tongue-in-cheek comment points to a disappointment I had with the exhibition overall: the only works lent to visitors to feel, weigh and sit in for themselves were those which Perriand made in her modernist period under Le Corbusier, her ball bearing necklace still around her neck. Visitors therefore left the retrospective having seen the breadth of Perriandās work, but having felt only her most mechanical.

At times, the exhibitionās infrastructure limited the power of Perriandās work. The exhibition attempted to isolate Perriandās designs rather than allow them to interact with the rest of the museum, which itself uses interpretations of modernist principles; this was a greatly missed opportunity. Another disappointment was the use of cumbersome low walls in front of reconstructed spaces, cynically barring visitors from being near the works.
Furthermore, one of the exhibitionās biggest shortcomings was its accessibility. Prices were steep: student and concession tickets cost nearly three times those sold at the Tate galleries and at the Barbican. No reproductions of Perriandās work were available for purchase due to copyright technicalities, unless you bought a Ā£25 catalogue. This restricted accessibility to the show reveals at best a lack of awareness and at worst an intentional exclusion of those without the means.
A final improvement for the show would be to have capitalised on Perriandās relevance in the 21st century. As the internet-of-things grips our daily lives, and our mass-produced quotidian tools become more alien to us by the year due to their unfathomable fabrication and synthetic materials, arguably Perriandās design principles make more sense now than ever. With British living rooms having shrunk by a third since the 1970s, Perriandās domestic spaces are surely all the more powerful.
āThe Modern Lifeā gave Perriandās achievements and multiplicity space and time to breathe without simplifying her philosophy. An astonishing career was fleshed out with a strong inventory of works and an exciting juxtaposition of ideas. However, the failure to capitalise on the relevance of Perriandās designs to pressing contemporary issues, such as the provision of high-quality housing and responding to the climate crisis, demonstrates a disconnect between the exhibitionās intentions: the Design Museum chose to stage an apolitical high-design show, in turn relegating its potential to pose important questions about how our built environments are made.
For those who couldnāt get enough of Perriand or missed the exhibition completely, āNoguchiā, the Barbicanās exhibition of the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, has recently opened and could act as a perfect follow-up to āThe Modern Lifeā – Noguchi and Perriand worked extensively together and their influences on each otherās work is palpable.
āCharlotte Perriand: The Modern Lifeā was shown at The Design Museum from 19th June until 5th September 2021. āNoguchiā is open at the Barbican Centre from until 9th January.
Featured Image:Ā Ergonomic drawing of boomerang desk (1938) by Charlotte Perriand. Image courtesy of Mich Rossiter.Ā