
Broached Commissions presents Broached Recall
Just as manufacturing companies recall faulty products, Broached Commissions is recalling design periods that have fallen out of favor, correcting them within a contemporary aesthetic. Applied arts of the Victorian era epitomize a colonial period most progressives prefer to be distanced from. Yet the period innovated modes of production that subsequently evolved and were utilized by modernist designers to create much of what is considered chic in twentieth-century design.
Antique houses are littered with Victorian objects made from timbers that are now often either scarce or extinct. Yet because of their form, no one wants them. This symbolizes the problem with design—it gives form to power. The power the Victorian era represents no longer has cachet. Therefore, resources are ripped from the Earth to represent a contemporary image of power. Power has no aesthetic. Power only knows what it wants: to persuade you to vote, to pray, or to purchase or experience a service. Design adds a layer of seduction to make those forceful desires compelling. Designers sell their empathetic sensitivity to the marketplace to wrap unadorned ambition with humane narratives.
The formal language of the fi rst Broached Recall collection derives from the emergence of modernist graphics in the mid-nineteenth century to the Bauhaus. World-renowned graphic artist John Warwicker created twodimensional pattern languages that Broached extruded into monoliths. By placing Victorian antiques in this structure, a central form of modernist design, the continuity of design’s actions, from one master to the next, are confirmed.
Established in 2011, Broached Commissions is a creative studio producing ambitious, finely crafted collectible design with the capacity to reflect on or disrupt tradition. All projects follow a research-led process. By fusing deep
historical context with contemporary design, Broached Commissions creates new work that combines legacy (political, social, industrial, material, and formal) with modern functionality and material expectations.
Schedule of Events/
Preview Day/ By invitation only
Tuesday, December 3/
Press Preview/ 1–7PM
Members Preview/ 11AM–12PM
Collectors Preview/ 12–7PM
Vernissage/
Wednesday, December 4/ 11AM–1PM
Public Show Days/
Wednesday, December 4/ 1–8PM
Thursday, December 5/ 11AM–8PM
Friday, December 6/ 12–8PM
Saturday, December 7/ 12–8PM
Sunday, December 8/ 12–6PM
Convention Center Drive and 19th Street
Miami Beach
For more information, visit https://miami2019.designmiami.com/