Ron Arad

MIAMI—When Artinfo arrived at the cavernous ground floor space in Miami’s Design District that housed a temporary installation by Ron Arad, the designer himself was comfortably seated in the corner, in one of his signature “Rover” chairs, made from recycled car seats.

Now considered one of the world’s foremost designers, Arad, born in Tel Aviv in 1952, studied art in Jerusaleum in the 1970s before moving to London to study architecture at the Architectural Association there.

Arad’s special exhibition in Miami, which was on view from Dec. 1-4 to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach and the Design.05 fair (and arranged by gallerist Barry Friedman), featured a group of mirrored tables distributed on the floor—and creeping up the walls.

Another one of his most recent projects was also on view: a pair of chandeliers designed for the Swarovski crystal company. Arad made ample use of the company’s crystals, but added a sprinkling of technology. In one of chandeliers, for instance, he incorporated light-emitting diodes (LEDs) operated by SMS text messages that can be sent to the chandelier.

When ArtInfo sat down in the other “Rover” chair next to Arad’s, he began by recounting an anecdote about when he first created them. Back in 1981, during the early days of Arad's career, a fellow knocked on the bus doors that served as the entrance to Arad's London studio and ended up buying six of them. Later Arad found out from the name on the check that it was none other than Jean Paul Gaultier. "I didn't really know who he was then," the designer says. "But it was a long time ago. He didn't even know who he was!"

There are a number of mirrored tables in the center of the room, and others that seem to be making their way up the walls. It's quite dramatic. How did you decide to have tables climbing the walls? Some are bent so that they are partly on the floor, and partly on the wall. Not quite tables...

Instead of having the tables in the center of the room, like a Richard Long piece, I thought, why not have them climb the wall? Then I thought, “what about the tables that are bent?” But those are the ones people want first! All of the bent ones sold right away. That tells you something about human nature...

They look like drops of water or mercury that are clinging to the wall...

It will be a shame to break up the installation, and all of these will go to different owners.

This installation seems to walk the line between art and design.

There is really no line to walk on. There is no line between art and design. There are artists who dismiss things as design, designers who dismiss things as art.

But these are tables, functional objects. A Richard Long, for instance, isn't functional.

Well, I'm sorry about that. I feel it's a narrow view, of art and design. Especially in America. You go to the new MoMA and you see design put in a kind of insignificant ghetto there. In the Pompidou center and in the Stedelijk, for instance, there is no problem. I'm now sharing a room with Paul Klee in the Pompidou.

What about the design you made for the Swarovski chandelier? It incorporates technology in an interesting way...

You can send a text message to the chandelier!

How did you decide to make a chandelier to which someone can send a text message?

Swarovski asked me to make a chandelier. At first I didn't want to. I turned it down and they came back the following year, now I am so glad I did it. There are 25 of them. They have been installed in Tokyo and elsewhere.

So if you have the phone number of the chandelier you can send it a message? But it will never answer you will it?

People send it messages. You should see all the obscenities that are appearing.