Omer Arbel: Exhibition Armature

Omer is a Vancouver based designer. He is a multifaceted individual. I deal with his foremost of design legacies on a daily basis, that being his Bocci pendants. However, I recently stumbled across his website, which showcases his independent design projects, my favourite of which is this Exhibition Armature.


This is a prototype for a system of exhibiting surrealist artwork commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery, and never put into production. We proposed the creation of a giant, haphazard ‘mass’ – a three dimensional automatic sketch inspired by the surrealist artists whose works the armature would contain. This prototype was our first opportunity to explore a casting technique where we haphazardly arrange a modular material (in this case hay bales) and then shoot foam onto the outside surface. We then remove the casting positive (hay bales) to reveal the negative shape formed by the foam. Wood boxes were placed within the hay bales to create crisp rectangular voids to contrast the irregular form of the surrounding foam. Each of these boxes is uniquely sized to hold a particular surrealist artwork and in dialogue with the curatorial sequence would contribute to the shape of the armature as it moved throughout the exhibition space.

go see his work here