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Drafts in WHITE
The House of the Ear
Issue 3
August 2023
By Dana Harel
Casa Sola-Busca, nicknamed “The House of the Ear,” sits on a quiet street in Milan. I stumbled upon it during one of my early trips to Italy. It is the poetic manifestation of an edifice listening to you and its city. Instantly inspired by this playfulness of scale between architecture and the human form, I began imagining a new collection of White Dirt vessels in a similar vein.
To the astute explorers that find this site, the bronze ear may seem like just an eccentric work of art. However, the piece once functioned as the building’s intercom for visitors to call upon residents. This larger-than-life ear creates an exceptional moment - a lyrical point of entry to the building.
The human form has always been used as a point of reference in architecture— scale, measurements, and proportions all tend to reflect the body as a whole. Rendered out of scale and place, this ear breaks away from the traditional relationship between body and building.
Back home from my travels and alone with my thoughts, I started developing ATRIO. Through the years, my fascination with anthropomorphism has always been present and very often influences my work. With this new collection, I combined construction materials and inverted heads as the foundation for new architecturally inspired forms. Unlike the house of the ear, the body parts are more obscured and subtle, embedded within the porcelain surface, becoming visible only to the highly attentive observer.
Back home from my travels and alone with my thoughts, I started developing ATRIO. Through the years, my fascination with anthropomorphism has always been present and very often influences my work. With this new collection, I combined construction materials and inverted heads as the foundation for new architecturally inspired forms. Unlike the house of the ear, the body parts are more obscured and subtle, embedded within the porcelain surface, becoming visible only to the highly attentive observer.
Images:
Casa Sola-Busca from Dana’s library; Le Corbusier’s “Modulor Man” photo by Cemal Emden; White Dirt photography by Nikki Gerdes.
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