POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

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Zaha Hadid tea and coffee set

Object No. 98/42/1

In the 1990s, the Italian design company Sawaya & Moroni produced a range of highly innovative silver tableware designed by leading international designers and architects. Sawaya & Moroni commissioned this silver tea and coffee set in 1995 from Zaha Hadid (b.1950 Bagdad), one of the most innovative architects of her generation. Her studio, Zaha Hadid Architects, is based in London. All components were hand crafted by Italian silversmiths in Sawaya & Moroni's specialist silversmiting workshop in Milan. Released in a limited edition, there were only ten sets made to this design, and later also another ten sets were made in a modified, upright (not leaning) version. The Powerhouse Museum's example was made in 1997 as the third set in the original edition. Today, already a collector's item and achieving extraordinarily high prices on the international market, the Zaha Hadid tea and coffee service is among the most visually striking tableware designed and made in the 1990s. The design for this set reflects Hadid's belief that contemporary architects and designers "have to take on the task of investigating the modernity" (quoted in: J Giovannini, 'Architecture's only diva', Harper's Bazaar, October, 1992). Strongly architectural, it hints at Hadid's deconstructivist work which explores future architectural directions. Initially, Hadid became famous for her striking paintings of complex organic spaces. In 1983, she won the international design competition for the Peak, a sports club in Hong Kong that looked like a giant, exploding rock crystal. After this international debut, Hadid was occupied with widely publicised projects around the world, creating a new architectural language that has extended the boundaries of both design and building technology. In 1988, she was the only woman represented in 'Deconstructivist Architecture', a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art that introduced a new generation of innovative architects. In 2004, she became the first woman to be awarded the coveted Pritzker Architecture Prize and two years later, was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2007, the Design Museum in London presented the first retrospective show of Zaha Hadid's work in the United Kingdom. Zaha Hadid Architects designed London's Aquatics Centre commissioned for the 2012 Olympic Games, a spectacular highlight of their more recent projects. Eva Czernis-Ryl, Curator, 2009

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Summary

Object Statement

Tea and coffee set (4 pieces), sterling silver, designed by Zaha Hadid in London in 1995, made by Sawaya and Moroni SpA in Milan, Italy, in 1997.

Physical Description

This is a four-piece tea and coffee set crafted in polished sterling silver in the form of a table sculpture that splits into individual vessels. It comprises a teapot, coffeepot, sugar bowl and a milk jug. When not in use, the set can be assembled to form a single unit resembling a tilted architectural structure composed of angular vessels.

DIMENSIONS

Height

275 mm

Width

210 mm

Depth

240 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

Designed by Zaha M. Hadid (b.1950 Bagdad, d.2016 London) in London, 1995. The first set was produced by Sawaya & Moroni in 1996. This set, commissioned and made in 1997, is one of the first in a limited edition of 10. A slightly altered version of this design (not leaning) was produced by Sawaya & Moroni in another edition of 10. Made by Sawaya & Moroni in Milan in 1997.

HISTORY

Notes

Commissioned by The Powerhouse Museum in May 1997. In 2002, Zaha Hadid provided another futuristic design for a silver tea and coffee set for the well-known Italian design company Alessi. The digitally-generated design, also a table sculpture that splits into individual vessels, belonged to a series of twenty one tea and coffee sets known as 'Tea and coffee towers'. The project was inspired by Alessi's earlier sets, entitled 'Tea and coffee piazzas', which were designed by eleven of the most accomplished architects of the early 1980s. For image see: E Czernis-Ryl, 'Contemporary silver. Made in Italy', Powerhouse Publishing, 2004, plate 89, p121.

SOURCE

Credit Line

Purchased 1998

Acquisition Date

16 March 1998

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