news
  • ongoing
    exhibition

    MAK Design Lab at the Museum of applied Arts in Vienna. Within the permanent Design exhibition one can find a few of our projects like 'the idea of a tree', 'limited moths' or 'LeveL.

    MAK Design Lab

  • 15.September 2023 - 21. July 2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    exhibition, new project

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

limitedFungi

a project that represents limitation in reality

  • year 2008 / 2009

  • categories Limited Editions
    Products & Furniture

  • commissioned by

    self-initiated

realLimited fungi shelf, 2008 - ongoing / limitations occurring in nature translated into a limited edition

limitedFungi fungi is part of the realLimited series, which points out limitations in reality. An endangered Austrian fungi species is figured in tin, growing on an old ‘rotten’ wooden board. Each tin mushroom is numbered and represents one mushroom left in reality. The number of the limited edition (12) derives directly from nature. As there are just estimated 200-250 individual fungi of that species left in Austria, there will be just 12 shelves. (on each 18-21 fungi) A part of the generated money goes to the project ‘Baumpension’ (retired tree) by the Naturschutzbund Austria, which protects old dying trees as habitat for fungi, moss and insects. The idea is: by trying to save the species, another shelf will be possible in some years. – from limited to unlimited

realLimited – general description

Inspired by limited editions, the project realLimited connects limitation back to realistic facts. It is about limited editions that reflect limitations in reality: untouched nature, maintained traditions, old craftsmanship, languages and dialects… The main idea is to get inspired from these limitations, to start using and revitalizing them and to encourage their further being or to mirror and interpret the limitation, if use is not directly possible. realLimited should show that Design can be functional and beautiful, not just in an object, but also for the idea it stands for. The realLimited concept can be applied to several topics as for example: wild nature, old nearly forgotten techniques and craftsmanship or endangered domestic animals, plants and their products. The first executed realLimited-project endangered species are translated into limited editions of products. Each single product, or element of a product, represents one individual being.  A percentage of the money generated by selling the limited editions goes to environmental projects that try to save the selected species. Ideally the editions of products would be re-edited every few years, mirroring the species development. If the population increases in number, the edition does as well.

main image:  Rene van der Hulst

the shelf is made of a preserved old wooden board, since these fungi usually grow on decaying wood

a single mushroom seems to grow out of the shelf

a small group of 'kuehneromyces lignicola' on the shelf with embossed numbers

the mushrooms were first modeled in wax and then cast in tin

kuehneromyces lignicola / image source

unfinished tin mushroom

  • material

    conserved rotten wood,
    tin fungi (cast and embossed),
    metal wall mounting

  • dimensions

    about 190 x 30 x 12 cm

  • production

    limited edition of 12 + 1 AP

  • links