An approach based on direct experience, a lifestyle in itself as well as an aesthetic embracing the without from the within: such is the anthem of modern design in upscale furniture that has been making the rounds of celebrity mansions and middle-class apartments alike. No aspiration towards personal statements or expressions, these pieces can seem both solemn and spontaneous, planned by man and yet naturally crafted by nature herself. Thus does the utilitarian ethos come through despite the strictest prohibitions against schools of thought and their theories. Thus do frivolities suggest themselves to untutored eyes and sensibilities while the subtlety of its materials lend the noblest elegance – which is to say the most loaded of silences – to a piece honestly crafted, with no thought of accolade or sale.
In an age where traditional skills have been shunned and modernity is identified with the machine, there had been a reaction, or, if you will, a comeback, of the ancient, almost stoic, ethic assigning being to doing itself. Thus there can be no theory of design, no movement in the arts: such terms belong to metacognition, and not to the all-powerful and all-pervasive heritage of the human unconscious. Thus it is that truly spontaneous furniture, like calligraphy, must arise out of its materials, and cannot be put together by them. And so it is that such an art can only be learned, like that of Barlas Baylar, not taught.
An ironic term, art, suggesting the artifice that lies at the heart of reinterpreting nature. Yet just as an actress may by her most cunningly depicted lies show a truth unavailable otherwise, so too do artists and artisans understand the necessary work of it all in spite of the sophist’s objections: civilizations must have their furnishings. Yet this return to time-honored ways in contemporary design has found its place in the most modern of settings, sleek where nature is thick with life, minimalist where nature had been fat with unmediated growth. Thus the modern furniture maker, one such as Barlas Baylar, integrates the needs of contemporary society with the secrets passed down through the ages by village masters simply doing their job.
A job well-done is the legacy of such ancients. Theirs was not a world of art criticism and changing fashions, but pride in craftsmanship and a vision that can never be ossified by theory. Intimately recognizing themselves a part of the natural cycle, no discrimination was made between nature’s discards and nature herself. In our ever-crowded world, where digital communications can make neighbors seem too close and governments in our very beds, this so-called folk art is a reminder and a triumph of the human spirit. As George Nakashima wrote, “it might even be a question of regaining one’s own soul when desire and megalomania are rampant – the beauty of simple things.”
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