Emmett Moore at bassX
Miami-based sculptor and designer Emmett Moore, creates inventive pieces that combine objects to test the limits of their form and function. Many of his works explore conditions of display. For his exhibition Human Factory at the Bass Museum of Art’s bassX Gallery, Moore takes inspiration from the quintessential design manual “Human Dimension and Interior Space” by Julius Pinero and Martin Zelnik. Using standard calculations from the source book as referents for the scale and dimensions of this new body of work, Moore creates a trio of sculptures that challenge and call attention to the human body’s relation to designed forms. The artist writes:
“Good design is thought to be democratic by nature, but if a design is based on human proportions it must be modeled around a small group of the population in order to accommodate the rest.
For this reason, dimensions in furniture and interior design processes are based on either the 5th, or 95th percentile of the population. There is no such thing as an average person, and so to create objects that suit such an individual would be to exclude more than half the population.
This and other counter-intuitive systems that govern the creation of man-made objects, especially ones that directly relate to human dimension, are meant to go unnoticed. The playful relationship that I have developed with these invisible systems is explored here.”
Emmett Moore is a Miami-based sculptor and designer with a BFA in Furniture Design from Rhode Island School of Design. Emmett’s interest fluctuates between function and form, working at the intersection of computer-aided design and craft-oriented processes. His primarily object-based practice also involves working with artists to explore conditions of display through architectural interventions as well as site-specific private commissions.
His work has been exhibited institutionally at the RISD Museum, The Frost Art Museum, The Perez Art Museum, Miami, and The Bass Museum of Art. Gallery exhibitions and projects include those at Gallery Diet, where he is represented, Design Miami, Architecture at Large, Primary Projects, Locust Projects, OHWOW, Patrick Parrish Gallery and The Standard Miami.
The 2015-2016 season for the Bass Museum of Art will be presented as bassX, a satellite space in the Miami Beach Regional Library, located directly across the street from the museum.